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{
    "id": 1463593,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1463593/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 506,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Matungu ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Peter Nabulindo",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "The collapse of the sugar industry in the western region led to numerous problems that, at times, we cannot speak about. The families that depended on those activities dived directly into abject poverty. They have never been able to rise from it. Most families have now resorted to selling that land because that is the only thing they have. That land can no longer be productive. If they want to educate their children, they partition the land and sell it year after year. Eventually, families do not have the land anymore. The little that is there can be utilised. We cannot bank on the tracts of land that used to be there, as they are no longer there. Due to the increased population too, families have divided the land. Therefore, the Government needs to put an elaborate framework in place to ensure that we have enough land for sugarcane production. That can only happen if we engage the communities that used to farm. Let us do it positively to try and make land that is supposed to be used for sugarcane farming is available. We also need to set up a research centre on sugarcane farming, production, marketing and anything that concerns it. We have such institutions in place, but their findings do not get to the farmers. The farmers are still in a cocoon. He does not understand what he is supposed to do next. It is very difficult for us to expect the farmer to produce sugarcane the way they used to and yet, there is no funding of any sort. Right now, all the sugarcane farmers are not empowered at all. They are poor. Where do they get the capital to even buy fertiliser, prepare land, harvest and transport the cane to the factories? Those are very expensive activities that when we leave them to the farmers, we are technically telling them to stop farming. If we do not support the farmers, we are condemning them to poverty for life. The purpose of this Motion is to finally look at the farmers. In the equation of sugarcane industry revival, where are the farmers? That is the question that has been disturbing the minds of very many leaders in the western region. We need to put a framework in place so that we can look at the farmers with a critical eye and with the intent of empowering them to produce good quality sugarcane that will enable the millers to stand. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}