Seed companies and sugar makers are racing to find a higher-yielding sugar beet for Kenyan farmers as the crop’s pilot seed underperforms.
Currently, Sugar Top distributed by Simlaw Seeds is the only sugar beet variety available to farmers in Kenyan agrovets. Introduced to the country in August last year in conjunction with Ranges Sugar Factory, the sugar beet has produced just 13–17 tonnes per hectare. This is 3.9 times less than the 66.41 tonnes of sugar beets produced per hectare in Europe.
“We are currently using Sugar Top seeds in our factory imported through Simlaw. The variety’s tuber sizes have however not been as big as we had hoped which has greatly diminished the amount of sugar we are producing because only 15–18 per cent of the sugar beet is processed into sugar.
We are currently trialling other sugar beet varieties we have brought into the country through Poland and they will be ready for harvest in weeks. From the size of tubers we have on shambas, we can see their tubers will be much bigger. As soon as we harvest and register these new varieties with KEPHIS we will release their names and through Simlaw import their seeds for the Kenyan mass market,” explained Samuel Kariuki, the manager at Ranges Sugar Factory in Nyandarua.
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While it has a high sugar content of 18 percent and matures moderately at six months, Sugar Top is also limited to growing in areas such as Nyandarua, Narok, Laikipia, Elgon, and parts of Western that experience a relatively cool, ‘temperate’ climate.
“We planted our first sugar beet in August 2023 and despite the challenges we have experienced both in the field and the factory, we managed to get Kenya’s first processed sugar beet sugar a year later in August 2024,” Kariuki illuminated
From the hard lessons Ranges has learned, they advise farmers to sow the crop in a nursery before it is ready for transplanting on the fourth week 30cm x 30 cm and 30 cm x 45 cm apart.
The pioneering farmers who grew Sugar Top for the first time had challenges with cutworms in their early growth stages and then aphids in the middle stage. Leaf spots also showed up during dumpy conditions.
According to Samuel, the pests and diseases affecting the crop are not costly to manage.
“The crop’s yields are highly influenced by good fertility. We have advised farmers to use NPK Mavuno fertilizer (17:17:17) and then top-dress their crops with CAN fertilizer.
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With good management, farmers can earn up to Sh240,000 an acre, a figure we expect to significantly increase with the entry of better-producing sugar beets,” he said.
Samuel Kariuki, Ranges Sugar Factory: 0727094638