Kisumu: The Kenya Sugar Board has launched a comprehensive guide aimed at empowering sugarcane farmers with best practices to enhance productivity and sustainability. The document, developed with support from GIZ and the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO), provides practical solutions to common challenges while promoting modern farming techniques that ensure profitability and environmental sustainability.
According to Kenya News Agency, GIZ Project Manager David Kersting stated that the Kenya Sugar Industry Grower’s Guide addresses every stage of the sugarcane farming cycle, from land preparation and planting to harvesting and post-harvest handling. The guide incorporates modern agricultural research findings tailored to Kenya’s diverse agro-ecological zones to ensure that farmers maximise yields while preventing soil degradation. Kersting emphasized that the initiative aims to develop a robust and sustainable sugar sector in the country based on agroecological principles.
Kenya S
ugar Board Chairman Nicholas Gumbo noted that the initiative is part of a broader strategy by the board to revive the sector, which has faced numerous challenges. During the launch of the document in Kisumu, Gumbo highlighted the board’s goal of reducing the cost of cane development to guarantee farmers maximum benefits. The guide is expected to double yields per hectare, ensuring that the country produces enough sugar to satisfy the local market and for export. Other interventions include sugarcane value chain development to ensure that farmers and millers reap maximum benefits.
Gumbo encouraged farmers to view sugarcane not just as a source of sugar but also to explore other products along the value chain. The board is exploring the production of biofuel, industrial alcohol, spirits, briquettes, and paper from sugarcane by-products. He stated that the potential of the sector is vast and that training farmers on the production of briquettes from bagasse will help build a climate-resilient economy. The retur
ns from diversification are expected to reduce the cost of cane production and eventually lower the cost of sugar in the country.
The enactment of the Sugar Bill 2022, which reinstated the Kenya Sugar Board, was described by Gumbo as a significant milestone for the sector. He noted that the board is on track to implement measures to regulate the sector, strengthen production, milling efficiency, cane development, and value addition, and provide funding to revitalize the industry.
KSB Acting Chief Executive Officer Jude Cheserem expressed the board’s commitment to championing various innovations to advance the sector. He highlighted the use of drone technology to aid in the sugar census for effective planning as one of the promising innovations. The census, traditionally conducted manually, is a tedious process, but the piloting of drone technology is expected to revolutionize the planning and management of the crop. Cheserem encouraged millers to adopt new technology to enhance their efficiency and develop
new products along the value chain.