Shifting sugarcane farming from Western Kenya to the Coast will cut cane growing time by half and increase the sweetness of Kenya’s sugar, helping the country bridge its sugar deficit.
There are at least 50,000 acres in the Coast of Kenya that could be used to grow sugarcane. At the moment, 200,000 acres of land is under sugar, with the majority of this in Kenya’s sugar belt in Western Kenya. Coast grown cane matures in just 10 months because of the region’s humid and warm climate as opposed to 18-24 months in Western. According to a study done by Tana and Athi Rivers Development Authority, sugarcane at the Coast can yield 150 – 180 tonnes per hectare– double Kenya’s current 60 tonnes of cane per hectare– while also being sweeter because of the regions soil and heat. All this makes the Coast of Kenya the most suitable region in the country to grow sugarcane and cut the country’s 269 million dollar sugar import bill.
“Sugarcane farming switching from Western to the Coast would be more profitable for Kenya because the region because the cane would mature faster and the region has the ideal climate and soil type to ensure that the sucrose levels of the cane produced are higher. Unlike Western Kenya where farming is done in increasingly smaller plots because of population expansion, the Kenyan Coast has large tracts of land that would allow for the use of machinery which would lower farming costs,” said former Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture Felix Koskei.
According to KALRO’s Sugar Research Institute, sugarcane grown on the Kenyan coast is first harvested at 14-10 months for the parent crop. It is then harvested again every 8 to 10 months for its ratoon crop which is a re-growth of the first harvest parent crop for seven to eight years.
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The coastal counties of Kwale and Tana River have the ideal temperature (24 – 26.60°C) for the sun-loving crop, humidity, and rain for sugarcane production.
Sugarcane farming is currently the main source of income for farmers in Ramisi, Kwale County where it is grown on 10,000 hectares. This cane supplies the Kwale International Sugar Company Limited (KISCOL) which began milling in 2015.
The sugarcane is grown in sub-humid conditions under 1100 –1200mm annual rainfall received between the long rains season of April to August and the short rains season of October to December.
Most sugarcane needs 1500mm/year of rain which means farmers have to grow fast-maturing cane that can also handle a lack of water over the dry season. Examples include the first maturing D8484 and KEN 82-808 which grow under 1100-1600mm of rain, KEN 98-367, and KEN 83-737 which yields 135.6 t/ha. These varieties are distributed by the Sugar Research Institute at Kibos.
There is potential to put 40,000 hectares of sugarcane in Tana River County using water from the Tana River. The soils in the Tana Delta are also fertile loam which hold waterlonger than the sand loams soils at Ramisi.
Through the Tana Integrated Sugar Project, the government and private investors are looking to put 23,000 hectares of land under estate sugarcane farming and another 8,000 hectares in the Tana Delta under smallholder production.
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