Effects of sugarcane growing on food security among smallholder farmers in proximity to Kinyara sugar limited in Masindi district, Uganda.

Abstract

This study was conducted among smallholder sugarcane farmers dwelling withina radius of 15 km away from Kinyara Sugar Limited in Masindi district. The main objective of the study was to assess the effects of sugarcane growing on household food security. Data was collected from 379 households by use of household survey questionnaire. Data was coded, entered into SPSS spreadsheet software version 17.0 and analyzed by use descriptive statistics.Forty one percentof the households reported dedicated 5 acres of their land to sugarcane production. Provision of labour on sugarcane farms was 71% by men, forty percent of the smallholder farmers who grew sugarcane on more than 5 acres were located in Budongo Sub-County. Maize and ground nuts were the major staple food crops grown alongside sugarcane production in Budongo, Bwijanga and KimengoSub Counties. Most (66%) of smallholder farmer households earned between UGX 150,000/= to 300,000/= from sugarcane per acre. Forty five percent (44.6%) of all income generated from sugarcane growing was spent on accessing food for the household. Most of the respondent’s (154) finance sugarcane production through agricultural loans of >1,000,000/=. Most smallholder sugarcane farmer households lacked enough livestock to supplement income generated from sugarcane production. For instance, most smallholder farmers had no sufficient poultry (β= -0.158, P=0.005) though maize and cassava were grown ona large scale (β = 0.613, P=0.000) for maize and (β = 0.424, P=0.000) for cassava. There was insufficient production of ground nuts and beans (β = - 0.0561, P=0.000) in majority of the households. Maize was readily consumed at household level (β = 0.303, P=0.000)-Though grown on a limited scale among smallholder sugarcane farmer household; There was limited consumption of ground nuts at household level (β = -0.767, P=0.000). Most groundnuts were sold because theyattracted relatively high market prices (β = 0.327, P=0.002). It was observed that growing maize on large scale and selling off most of the produce increases food insecurity in Bwijanga Sub-County. Education level of the household head influenced food availability which implied thatthe more the household members were educated, the higher the chances they would access food. The major challenge facing smallholder sugarcane farmer households in Bwijanga, Kimengo and Budongo sub-counties was low cane prices paid by Kinyara Sugar Factory Limited, 46% farmers reported low prices as the main problem ofsugarcane production. Results from this study confirmed that Expansion of sugarcane growing is impacting negatively on food security. Therefore, improving viii household food availability and accessibility and security among smallholder farmers could be possible if farmers adopted integrated agriculture based on rationalized land use and diversification of sources of livelihoodS