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Farmers petition Speaker on sugar cane zoning
|THE INDEPENDENT | Sugar cane growers associations of Masindi, Mukono and Busoga have petitioned the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga over sugar cane zoning to reject the idea terming it as an out-dated model that believes in wealth accumulation by rent-seeking behaviours i.e., “in this case Farmers land (private property) is grabbed/colonised for production for a particular mill.”
In the petition, the farmers say some conditions should be met before any attempt to legalise zoning is made: Farmers land in the zone should be treated as an investment meaning that at least 60 percent shares of the factory be owned by farmers, since farmers supply more than 70 percent raw material; Farmers to be represented on the factory governing board; Government undertaking to fully compensate farmers in case of burnt cane above 10 months since the factory has no capacity to crush cane in the zone, which is a 25 km radius has production potential of 10,000 tons cane per day, and yet in Uganda no sugar factory has this crushing capacity.
Also, the farmers want a penalty of 3 percent interest per month for delayed harvesting of cane beyond the stipulated time frame of 18 months (Sugar Policy 2010).
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