As illustrated Fig 2, production has increased considerably since 1980, especially over the past decade. Trends suggest that increases in production in recent years have been more correlated with increases in total land planted to cane than with increases in yield, as they were in the past (KSI, 2009). In fact, output of sugarcane per hectare in the 2000s and 1990s has seen a significant decline compared to yields obtained in the 1980s. Potential reasons for this reduction in productivity include the widespread use of low quality sugarcane varieties, poor agricultural and land management practices and delayed harvesting of mature sugarcane (KSB, 2010).
Sugarcane performance depends largely on climatic and biophysical (i.e. soil and topographic) conditions, which vary significantly throughout Kenya. Sugarcane is mainly cultivated in four major production belts – the Nyando, Western, Nyansa and Coastal Belts – primarily located in the southern portion of the country.