NTV PANORAMA: Sugar cane farmers upset at shifting prices and a permit system
Busoga sugarcane farmers continue to cry foul over fluctuating prices and an extortionist permit system that controls sales at factories. With the sub-region flooded with a lot of surplus sugarcane, Atiak sugar factory has provided a brief relief, consuming some of the cane, which could have gone to waste in the fields. But this supply to Atiak is a short-term solution, whose demand was driven by a fire that razed acres of plantation in fields across Amuru district. Farmers in Busoga are now imploring government to establish an ethanol plant to directly benefit the communities in a sub-region with high poverty rates.