Sugarcane farmers are staying trapped in sugar as their incomes slump, using often rich agricultural land for the cane, out of generational loyalty, practical lock-ins to millers’ contracts, loans, and inputs, and the challenges of finding their own markets for other crops. The result, as many wait months for slow payments, is a trap that is seeing them earn as little as 1/3 of the income they could by growing other crops.
In 2022, sugarcane farmers produced 63 tons of cane from each hectare, earning them Sh284,081 in gross profit. According to the data from AFA’s Sugar Directorate, the cash crop is grown by 292,586 farmers in 14 counties, mainly in Kakamega, Bungoma, Kisumu and Narok, who own an average of 1.7 acres.
However, sugarcane is a long-term crop that usually takes 18 months to two years to mature. Meanwhile, its cost of production has risen by nearly half from Sh87,204 per hectare in 2014 to Sh129,903 per hectare in 2018. According to researchers at JKUAT, this is nearly three times the cost of sugar production in countries like Malawi and Zambia.
At the same time, Western Kenya is blessed with highly fertile volcanic soils that are suited to much more lucrative tuber crops, such as sweet potatoes and arrowroots, legumes like groundnuts, cash crops like coffee and highly profitable fruit trees, such as tree tomatoes, passion fruits, papaya and avocados. It is also the wettest region in Kenya, with rains averaging 1,200 mm to 2,000 mm a year with the gift of being the only part of the country that technically has three rain seasons. As well as the long and short rains, the area also has rain from June to September.
With ideal weather and soils that would be the envy of farmers in most other parts of Kenya, why would a farmer in Bungoma opt to grow cane and earn Sh154,178 net profit a year?
The answer lies in both emotional and practical ties, which, together, are now locking farmers into these much lower incomes.
“I am often tempted to exit sugarcane farming but this four-acre farm has passed down two generations before getting to me. My father was educated by my grandfather through sugarcane and he, in turn, sent me to school from the money he made growing sugarcane. The cash crop’s value is more than monetary to us and it would almost be sacrilegious to start growing different crops on the land,” explained Benson Namano, who works as an engineer in Naivasha
But, at a practical level, Faluma explains that most sugarcane farmers often have contract agreements with sugar companies, which offer loans, inputs like fertilisers, and even transportation for the cane. All this frees farmers from the hustle that comes with growing crops without a defined farm-to-buyer chain. This also makes it difficult to switch to other crops as the loans are tied to future harvests.
Thus, while sugar payments can be delayed, sometimes for years, most farmers have signed contracts with sugar mills that give them some income security compared to the risks associated with unfamiliar or seasonal crops.
However, some farmers have managed to break away from the sugar trap.
Daniel Mumia, a Kakamega farmer, quit growing sugarcane for bambara nuts after a miller delayed farmer pay. “Today, I earn triple what I got from sugarcane in half the time by supplying Sh752,000 worth of bambara nuts to Matungu market and brokers from the Coast every five months.”
According to AFA’s Yearbook of Statistics, 2023, bambara nuts are mostly grown in Western Kenya (Busia, Kakamega, Bungoma, and Vihiga) on 209 Ha in 2022. Their farm gate prices ranged between Sh344 per Kg and Sh393 per Kg.
Elisha Mukoya, also a farmer along Kenya’s sugar belt in Mumias, practices the mixed cropping of maize, tomatoes, and onions. Arrowroots have, however, emerged as his main money source. From an acre shamba, he earns gross pay of up to Sh260,000 in six to seven months from his dasheen upland arrowroots.
“With a relatively low production cost of Sh90,00-Sh60,000 an acre plus the extra income I get selling hundreds of growing tubers to farmers across the country, i’d say growing arrowroots here really is a no-brainer for farmers,” said Elisha.