Kenya to start sugar export in three years’ time, Koskei

The government has announced plans to become a major sugar exporter in the next three years through a public-private partnership programme with investors at the Bura Irrigation Scheme in Tana River County.

Taking advantage of the 176,000 acres of land and the recently commissioned 26-kilometre Bura irrigation gravity canal, which phased out the use of diesel pumps to pump water from River Tana to the farms by leveraging the force of gravity to allow water to naturally flow to the farms, the government has already leased 135,000 acres to investors to start sugarcane and rice production.

Among the investors are Sukari Industries and Tana River Sugar, which have leased 50,000 acres each for sugarcane production.

Speaking at the Bura irrigation scheme, where he was joined by principal secretaries, the Head of Public Service Felix Koskei noted that the government was eyeing the coastal region as the next sugar basket due to its availability of land and water, especially from River Tana.

Koskei further said that sugarcane at the Bura irrigation scheme was maturing within a short period of 10 months compared to other sugarcane-growing regions like western and Nyanza, thus offering to multiply production.

“This country has been focusing more on the Nyanza region for sugarcane, and therefore a source of sugar when it comes to production, but when you look at the agro-climatic conditions, we have realised that the coast is best for sugar because the sucrose content of the sugarcane that we plant here is very high, and it also has early maturing. It is easy to manage in terms of weeds and other issues around the agronomy,” Koskei said.

“The government has focused more on this part of the region because it has enough land; we have water here, and at the same time we can triple the production as opposed to other areas. We are seeing a situation in one or two years that we will completely be a major exporter of sugar and in three or four years become a completely major exporter of rice,” he added.

Koskei further urged the investors who have been engaged in the irrigation schemes to work closely with the local communities and collaborate through corporate social responsibility activities to better their lives and their livelihoods.

At the same time, the head of public service urged all investors within the country to continue investing within the country and those in other countries to bring their investments into the country owing to the various investment opportunities, stable economy and adequate laws safeguarding their investments.

“We are encouraging the investors in the country not to look outside the country but inside the country. We also encourage investors outside the country to come to Kenya because here we have very solid economic policy, and we have robust laws that govern the economic space and ensure that every investor is given enough room to do what they intend to maximise returns,” he said.

Irrigation Principal Secretary Ephantus Kimotho said that before the current administration took over in 2022, the Bura irrigation scheme was only irrigating 5,000 acres of land, which now, as a result of the increase of water supply from 3 to 11 cubic metres per second, has been expanded to 135,000 acres.

The PS further revealed that with the irrigation of sugar, the expected production of sugar is 50 tonnes per hectare, maturing in a period of 10 months, compared to 25 tonnes per hectare in other regions, which also take longer to mature, thus multiplying sugarcane production by four times.

According to the Kimotho, the government is expecting to produce over 5 million metric tonnes of sugar per harvest from the already committed 100,000 acres, which is enough to bridge the gap in the country and allow export of the surplus.

“The Bura irrigation scheme used to irrigate 5000 acres before this administration took over, but after the completion of the gravity system, we have been able to increase the water from 3 cubic to 11 cubic, and that has enabled the Bura irrigation scheme to expand to be able to command 135,000 acres. Out of the 135,000 acres, we are now doing sugar; before, this scheme used to do rice but with the extent of water, we are now doing sugar,” Kimotho said.

“The sugar that is currently being farmed here in Bura is growing faster than in some of the other areas in the west. This sugar is growing in a period of 10 months, giving us a production of 50 tonnes per acre; in other areas we usually get 25 tonnes per hectare, meaning we have been able to make the sugar production go up four times,” he added.

 By Erick Kyalo