The socio-economic effects of sugarcane farming on smallholders in North Bunyala, Kakamega

Abstract

This study examines the effects of small scale sugarcane farming on the socio-cultural and economic statuses of the people of North Bunyala. The introduction of sugarcane farming among small scale farmers in the area was an intervention calculated to assist this rural community to make an upward socio-cultural and economic mobility. The study was therefore interested in understanding the extent to which sugarcane cultivation was accepted by the farmers as an agricultural innovation. And, because there was a five year delay in the purchase of the crop, how that factor impacted the intended socio-cultural and economic improvement of the farmers who adopted the crop. Guided by the modes of production theoretical perspective, and an ethnoscientific approach, the study compared the socio-cultural and economic statuses of the farmers before and after they cutivated sugarcane. This exercise first established the ethnography of Abanyala with emphasis on their socio-cultural and economic systems through a study of both secondary and primary sources. Fieldwork provided information on the post-sugarcane cultivation phase. It was initially assumed that since the sugarcane crop was not sold up to the time research was conducted, its effects on the farmers would have been adverse. However, on realizing that they could not dispose of their crop as promised by the Nzoia Sugar Company, the farmers decided to engage themselves in other economic activities, thus improving to supplement their incomes. It is our view, therefore, that these positive developments were not direct results of their adopting sugarcane farming. The second observation is that adoption of sugarcane farming in the area under discussion reduced to some degree the land for food production. This factor in turn placed constraints on the variety, and amount of food crops cultivated. Consequently, we found changes in the farmers' economic system. Specifically product ion, consumption and distribution of food changed from being based on the extended family unit of the past and is now centered on the nuclear family unit. This. is to say that the important position that the extended family held in this sphere has greatly declined. Nevertheless, since we did not conduct a comparative study between sugarcane and non-sugarcane growers, it is difficult to say with certainity whether the observed change was or was not an impact of the adoption of the sugarcane farming by the families studied. The practical implications of the findings of this research to development planning are explicit. First is the fact that peasants have often survived under very difficult, conditions, and have accumulated knowledge of their own environment, along with problems and various alternative prescriptions for solving them. Second, planners need to learn to tap this knowledge for application at both local and national levels. The smallholders' response to the sugarcane farming project points to the fact that socia-cultural and economic intervention processes as packages have a multiple potential to effect change, either as planned or not. Even the unexpected can happen.