A Preliminary Report on the Suitability of the area of Busia District for Sugar Cane Development, 1975

Abstract

Busia is one of the districts in the Western Province of Kenya bordering Uganda and stretching southwards to L. Victoria (see fig. 1). It covers an area of 1629 sq. km. and a population of 174.2 thousand (1969 census). The majority of the inhabitants are Luhyas and Teso. Communication in the district as revealed in fig. J is mainly by road. The only tarmac roads are those from Kisumu to Busia and from Bungoma to Tororo. The railway to Tororo in Uganda passes through the northern part of the district through Kalaba. The road from Mumias to Busia through Nambale is impassable during the rainy season because of unstable surface. In order to direct attention to possible sites for sugar cane development a prior examination of several factors including climate, natural water resources, accessability, centrality of the site and soil quality were considered. Only the Sio and Walatsi rivers are conveniently situated to facilitate a sugar cane development which may command a large area of land within Busia District. Moreover, the rainfall (see the data in brackets in fig. 1) in the area bordering these two rivers seems to be the best for the District. The area indicated in fig. 2 was therefore selected for field study.