A study by Makerere University Economic Policy Research Centre indicates that Bunyoro sub-region now leads in sugarcane production.

The study, which examined different parameters, further shows that the total cane yield is highest in Bunyoro at 45 metric tonnes per acre, which is almost double Busoga’s 24 metric tonnes and Buganda’s 27 metric tonnes.

The region also leads in input costs standing at Shs17b compared to Shs92b for Busoga and Shs37b for Buganda.

The study also indicates that Uganda’s sugarcane industry has expanded cane production three-fold (more than 380 percent) over the last two decades, from about 1.5 million tonnes in 2000 to 5.8 million tons in 2020.

“The surge production can be entirely explained by the expansion of land harvested (from approximately 20,000 hectares in 2005 to more than 81,000 hectares in 2020),” the EPRC says, adding that the expansion of mills such as Kinyara Sugar, epically in Bunyoro, “also attracted new outgrower sugarcane cultivators.”

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