By Patra Lanyero
With the growing double burden of food and nutrition insecurity nationally and in developing regions like Bunyoro, Kinyara Sugar Limited (KSL) has reaffirmed its commitment to taking the necessary measures to address food and nutrition challenges while calling upon all key stakeholders to play active roles in the race to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030.
Caption : Kinyara Sugar Limited promotes better agronomy practices for improved productivity in its estates
The call was made during a recent meeting with journalists and sugarcane out growers in Masindi district. The meeting attracted journalists, including farmers, researchers, and civil society actors with innovations and work aimed at improving sustainable sugarcane growing, agricultural production, food, and nutrition through information sharing.
In a speech, KSL Corporate Communications Manager Aldon Walukamba called for urgent actions to “rid the Bunyoro sub-region of hunger and privation, which erode the dignity and pride of human life. This can be best done by respecting the cane production contracts while growing food crops and practicing good soil management.”
Walukamba noted that the Kinyara Sugar Limited is making great efforts to foster economic growth, in line with Uganda’s development plans, so as to support the agriculture sector and promote food production in the Bunyoro sub-region. He revealed that Kinyara Sugar Limited enhances income and food security for rural households by, among other things, increasing investment in quality inputs, extension services, agriculture research, water for production for crops and animals, mechanization, pest and disease control, mixed farming, and increasing the available capital base from which sugarcane farmers and agriculture sector players can borrow and emulate.
“We shall continue to prioritize sustainable agriculture in sugarcane growing areas; it is our commitment to enable all households, especially the rural smallholder farmers, to earn at least UGX 20 million per year or more from sugarcane growing, food agriculture, and other economic enterprises”, he said, adding that “this will help us eliminate hunger and poverty and stabilize food and nutrition security while boosting agro-industrialization and value addition.”
Caption : Kinyara Sugar Limited allows farmers to grow legumes in its nucleus estate for food security and land reclamation
In an interview with Masindi Sugarcane Growers Association Limited (MASGAL) Chairperson Robert Atugonza, he commended the Kinyara Sugar Limited management for its commitment to promoting, lifting its sugarcane out growers out of poverty, and making them more food secure. He also acknowledged the 50 years of technical cooperation between the Out Growers and Kinyara Sugar Limited, underscoring the importance of engaging many more stakeholders and partners to work towards zero hunger in Uganda.
“To make strides in realizing a hunger-free Bunyoro sub-region, our actions will have to be bolder, not only in scale but also in terms of multi-sectoral collaboration, involving sugarcane agriculture, food, health, water, and sanitation, education, which Kinyara Sugar Limited has overwhelmingly supported, and other relevant sectors; and in different policy domains, including social protection, development planning, and economic policy in the sugar industry”, he said.
Caption : Kinyara Sugar Limited maintains a well leveled road network to allow farmers access markets
In Uganda’s Bunyoro sub-region, Kinyara Sugar Limited registered approximately 7,400 sugarcane out-growers; they cultivate the crop on nearly 31,000 hectares of land.
Caption : Kinyara Sugarcane out growers tour an alternative income garden in Mirya village Masindi district
Masilamani Mathivanan, Kinyara Sugar Limited Agriculture Manager, disclosed that it has always been deliberate through our extension services to empower sugarcane farmers to be food secure because it is sustainable when farmers grow sugarcane and are food secure in their homes.