MASINDI– Cosmas Byaruhanga, the former Chairperson-Masindi District Sugarcane Out-growers Association [MASGAL], who also doubles as the LC5 Chairperson of the district, wants the association which brings together Masindi district sugar cane farmers to be transformed into a cooperative for purposes of collective bargaining, among other benefits.
Byaruhanga made the remarks on Thursday during a sugarcane farmers’ meeting organized by MP Kenneth Kiiza Nyendwoha [Bujenje County] and attended by Minister of State for Industry David Bahati and representatives of cooperatives at Kabango Church of Uganda.
Bahati was on a fact-finding mission after Nyendwoha raised challenges being faced by sugarcane growers in the area, as a matter of national importance that needed government’s attention.
Nyendwoha explained that sugarcane farmers were grappling with serious challenges including the low price of sugarcane, and high prices of agro-inputs like fertilisers, among others.
Byaruhanga used the opportunity and advised his fellow farmers to change the association into a cooperative if they are to benefit from the sugarcane growing business.
“We need to transform the association into a cooperative. Other cooperatives have been formed. We need to change this one into a cooperative to enable us to make a union,” Byaruhanga said.
He added that a cooperative is not limited to a number of activities to undertake, unlike an association which is a company limited by guarantee.
“In a cooperative, one has shares and a say. This can also help us start our own factory after forming a union. What we need to do is to have a farmers’ sugar factory,” he said.
Last year, Byaruhanga embarked on mobilising sugarcane farmers in the district to form cooperative societies such that they can form a union of sugarcane farmers.
Speaking to theCooperator, Byaruhanga noted that the only way to get a sugar mill from the government is by forming a union that would unite sugarcane farmers.
According to Byaruhanga, there are more than 7000 farmers engaged in sugarcane growing in the entire Masindi district.
“This is a good number to form a strong union. If we are committed to it, we cannot fail to run it. I approached Gen. Salim Sale and asked him to help us get our own sugar factory but he told me we should get organized in a union first. An association may not help us,” said Byaruhanga.
He added that currently four cooperatives have been formed, adding that his target is to form nine cooperatives such that the process of forming a union can start.
“There are cooperatives that had been formed in the 1970s by the people who were engaged in cane growing by that time. We are tracing their registration numbers in the Ministry of Trade Industry and Cooperatives. When we find them, we will rejuvenate them,” Byaruhanga added.
Byaruhanga called upon the sugarcane farmers to embrace the already formed cooperatives by buying shares.
“I am optimistic that we can benefit from the sugarcane we are growing if we become one and get our own factory,” said Byaruhanga.
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.
Masindi sugarcane farmers have been complaining of the low prices given by the companies, failure to harvest the cane in time, and spillage, among other challenges.
Byaruhanga says, all the challenges can be addressed if the farmers are organized in a union noting that if the farmers are organized and go to the government, they can be listened to.
“My dream is that by the time my political term expires; I should have achieved this goal. If sugarcane farmers have achieved it in Busoga region, why not us in Masindi?” Asked Byaruhanga.
During his inauguration in May last year, Byaruhanga promised to use his second term as the Masindi district Chairperson to get farmers in all sectors organised into cooperatives.
“We are going to mobilise farmers to organize themselves into cooperatives because when they’re in cooperatives, they will understand each other. This will also help them have a bargaining ground to demand what is due to them,” Byaruhanga said.
Robert Atugonza, the chairperson of the farmers’ sugarcane association asked minister Bahati to address raised by the farmers with urgency, saying farmers are demoralised.
Bahati promised to take all the issues to Cabinet on Monday [yesterday] and promised to follow up on other issues in the relevant ministries.
https://thecooperator.news/sugarcane-farmers-root-for-national-association/
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