Kampala, Uganda: President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has signed the Sugarcane (Amendment) Bill, 2023, into law and called for unity and cooperation between millers and growers to ensure the survival and prosperity of Uganda’s sugar industry.
“If you don’t want to kill this industry, you should all cooperate, because if you don’t, the sugar factories will collapse, and once they collapse, even new farmers will have nowhere to sell the sugar,” Museveni cautioned while presiding over the signing ceremony.
The new law comes after intensive consultations between Parliament, sugarcane farmers, millers, and leaders from the major sugar-growing regions of Buganda, Busoga, Bunyoro, and Acholi, to resolve disputes around the industry council structure, pricing formula, and council financing.
According to Trade Minister Hon. Francis Mwebesa, the law introduces a self-regulating Sugar Industry Stakeholders Council, whose leadership will rotate between representatives of millers and farmers every two years.
The council will comprise of; a chairperson selected on a rotational basis, four representatives of farmers, three representatives of millers, Permanent Secretaries from the Ministries of Trade, Agriculture, and Finance, or their representatives.
Trade Minister Mwebesa emphasized that rotating the chairperson role avoids domination by one group and ensures inclusive and cooperative governance.
The new law also mandates the creation of a Sugar Development Fund, with 70% contribution from millers and 30% from outgrowers, to support the activities of the council.
President Museveni welcomed the formula requiring millers to share profits from sugar and its by-products, including ethanol and electricity, with the growers. “I am now satisfied. Processors get more than just sugar from the cane, and this sharing model is fair. I can now sign the law,” he said.
Museveni further warned millers against exploiting smallholder farmers, especially those with less than four acres, advising them to adopt the 4-acre model, which promotes diverse agricultural production such as coffee, fruits, pasture, food crops, poultry, piggery, and aquaculture.
The Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Thomas Tayebwa, commended the President for his directive to halt parliamentary progress on the Bill until consensus was reached.
“You advised us not to proceed until we resolved the contentious issues. We went back, mediated, and brought a united front, which led to this successful signing,” Tayebwa said.
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