Sugarcane farmers have opposed the new cane pricing rates announced by the Sugarcane Pricing Committee last week, which saw their earnings cut by 13 percent.
The farmers say they will move to court to stop the changes which they claim only benefits the millers.
The move follows an announcement made by the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) on a revised price of sugarcane from Sh5900 per tonne to Sh5100 from April 8. The changes have come barely a month after the cane prices were lowered from Sh6050 per tonne to Sh5900.
According to the Kenya Association of Sugarcane and Allied Products (Kasap) chairman Charles Atyang, the pricing committee has not taken farmers' interests at heart and should therefore be dissolved.
“The new price is not proportional to the cost of production of cane, the least we can accept is a price of Sh6500 per tonne, nothing less,” said Mr Atyang, adding that they will be moving to court this week to seek orders to stop the implementation of the new prices.
The Kasap chairman said if the new prices are implemented, 90 percent of profits from sugarcane production will go into the pockets of millers even though the cost of production for farmers has continued to increase due to the rise in the cost of living.
According to Mr Atyang, farmers are currently spending more to pay for labour and farm produce whose prices are yet to be subsidised.
“We are supported by all the facts surrounding the production of sugarcane in this country. The field prices have been continuously increasing until recently when we began to experience a downward trend. All that the farmers have put in terms of ploughing, planting and fertilisers does not match the new prices offered to the farmer,” Mr Atyang.
