MASINDI-Sugarcane farmers from Bunyoro Sub-region have come together to form Bunyoro Sugarcane Farmers Cooperative Union Limited, according to Cosmas Byaruhanga, the Masindi district LCV Chairperson, who is also a member of the same cooperative.
According to Byaruhanga, five sugarcane farmers’ cooperative societies came together to form the new cooperative union, even though he said they still need more members from Bunyoro to grow it stronger.
Byaruhanga told theCooperator the union was registered on June 24, 2022, in the office of the Registrar of Cooperatives and Societies in the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Cooperatives [MTIC].
“Now we are mobilising more sugarcane cooperatives to join the union because if we are to benefit from the sugarcane business we need to be together. We need them to buy shares to enable us to get enough money to be able to run the business without relying on the millers,” he said.
Byaruhanga said that they expect to get capital to stock fertilisers and procure vehicles. He said they would go to Uganda Development Bank [UDB] for a cheap loan to be able to get other equipment.
“We also need to get tractors with the help of government. With time we will be able to work as an autonomous entity with plans to build our own sugar factory,” he said.
He further explained that sugarcane farmers in the region don’t benefit from by-products like molasses, bagasse, and electricity, and yet it is also generated from the sugarcane produced by farmers. He said this will change when they acquire their own factory.
He also said that apparently, they have an interim leadership for the new cooperative union headed by Muhamood Kazimbiraine.
Byaruhanga has been agitating for the formation of more sugarcane cooperatives to enable the farmers to bargain with one voice.
Last year, Byaruhanga embarked on mobilising sugarcane farmers in the district to form cooperative societies such that they could form a union of sugarcane farmers. There are more than 7000 farmers engaged in sugarcane growing.
Byaruhanga called upon the sugarcane farmers to embrace the already formed cooperatives by being active members and buying shares.
Some of the cooperatives which have been formed include; Masindi Sugarcane Farmers Cooperative, Kyema Sugarcane Growers Cooperative Limited, Kyabaswa Sugarcane Growers Cooperative Limited, Masindi Sugarcane Growers and Processors Cooperative Limited among others.
Sugarcane farmers in the district have been complaining of the low prices offered by the private companies, failure to harvest the cane in time, spillage, and not benefiting from other by-products among other challenges.
Byaruhanga says, all the challenges can be addressed by the farmers’ union, noting that government and other stakeholders are ready to listen to organised cooperatives and unions.
“My dream is that by the time my political term expires, I should have achieved this goal. If sugarcane farmers in Busoga region have achieved it, why not us in Masindi?” Byaruhanga said.
During his inauguration in May last year, Byaruhanga promised to use his second term as the Masindi district Chairperson to have all farmers organised into cooperatives.
Kazimbiraine, the interim chairperson for the new sugarcane union said that they are going to have the first general meeting on August 30, 2022, to introduce the union’s business plan.
“We have been struggling with Kinyara Sugar Works Limited as an association, but am sure as a union, we shall be listened to. So far we have five cooperatives but we are expecting four cooperatives to join us to make it nine,” Kazimbiraine explained.
He added that their aim is to ensure that sugarcane farmers in the future have total control over the sugar business in the region.
https://thecooperator.news/masindi-district-lcv-rallies-sugarcane-farmers-to-form-cooperatives/
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