“The members are devastated because they expected money, we were going to start cutting and selling the sugarcanes this week, so we have lost billions of shillings,” S
Santa Joyce Laker, the Chairperson of Atiak Sugar Plantation Out-growers Cooperative Society Ltd told Uganda Radio Network.
More than 3,000 acres (about five Square Miles) for out-growers in
Atiak Sub-county in Amuru District worth billions of shillings have been lost in a devastating fire that ravaged the Atiak Sugarcane plantation over
the weekend.More square miles which are yet to be measured were lost in the plantation of the second cooperative society in the Atiak sugar scheme.
The fire incident affected out-growers
of Gem Pacilo Farmers’ Cooperative Society Out-growers and Atiak Out Growers Cooperative
Society Ltd that are growing sugarcane for sale to Atiak Sugar Factory.
Santa Joyce Laker, the Chairperson
of Atiak Sugar Plantation Out-growers Cooperative Society Ltd revealed in an
interview on Wednesday that more than 3,000 acres of sugarcane belonging to
their farmers were destroyed in the inferno.
She explains that the fire started
from a sugarcane plantation belonging to Gem Pacilo Farmers’ Cooperative
Society Out-growers and spread to their farmers’ plantation, burning all
sugarcanes. According to Laker, the burnt sugarcanes were already matured and due
for harvest this week.
She says billions of shillings of what the farmers should have earned this season have been lost in
the inferno.
“The members are devastated because
they expected money, we were going to start cutting and selling it [the
sugarcanes] this week, so we have lost billions of shillings,” she told Uganda
Radio Network in an interview.
Laker says their preliminary
finding indicates the fire was set by herdsmen from a bush near the Sugarcane
plantation. She however faulted the security personnel for failure to respond in time to the scene despite being notified.
//cue in: “I even reported…//
Cue out:…army were there.”//
But the Amuru Resident District
Commissioner Osborn Oceng says there were no reports made to the Police
at Atiak Police Station when the fire broke out in the
plantation. He also notes that the management of the plantation failed to
implement several pieces of advice given to them on creating a fire lines (breaks) in the
plantation.
Oceng says the government should reconsider
the memorandum of understanding it signed with Atiak Sugar Factory due to the
heavy losses being incurred.
//cue in: “what I saw…//
Cue out:…at a loss.”//
Mohamud Abdi Ahmed, the Director of
Atiak Sugar Factory told URN in an interview that as management they are
already trying to find a long-lasting solution to the persistent fire
incidences at the Sugarcane plantation.
Ahmed says the devastating fire has greatly affecting the local farmers in the area who are the primary beneficiaries
of the Sugarcane growing project.
“Amongst ourselves, we are trying
to find a long-term solution and that’s where we are right now, so I think it’s
not a situation that we are trying to blame anybody but internally for the top management of government, ourselves as the company and also the cooperatives to find a
collective solution,” says Ahmed.
It is not yet unclear how many farmers
under Gem Pacilo Farmers’ Cooperative Society Out-growers have been affected and
the size of the sugarcane plantation ravaged by the weekend inferno.
The government through the National
Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) has since 2017 been supporting farmers
in the district to promote sugarcane growing through an out-grower scheme.
Through the scheme, the Government
aims at empowering and uplifting vulnerable members among them women who are beneficiaries of cooperatives societies.
But over the years, repeated fire
incidences on the sugarcane plantations in the district have left the
beneficiaries of Gem Pacilo Farmers’ Cooperative Society Out-growers and Atiak
Out Growers Cooperative Society Ltd in Losses.
The Government has a 40 percent
share in Atiak Sugar Factory with the majority share belonging to business
mogul Amina Hersi Moghe.
