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{
"id": 1569762,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1569762/?format=api",
"text_counter": 230,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Nyamira County, JP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Jerusha Momanyi",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you for giving me the opportunity to also speak on the Agriculture and Livestock Extension Services Bill. This is a very progressive Bill. As Kenyans, we understand that agriculture is the backbone of our economy. When stable and healthy, the backbone enables the rest of the body to move to wherever it wants to go. If well taken care of, agriculture will make our country's economy prosper and enable Kenyans to live the best life they aspire to. The population will be well-fed. We seriously need extension officers for us to get the best agricultural output. The officers will train farmers on the types of crops to be planted on each type of soils, and on what livestock is suitable for rearing in different climates. We are now facing climate change. The climatic conditions that prevail today are different from the ones we had in the early 1980s and 1990s. Due to these changes, we need to change our tactics by having well-trained extension officers who can understand the climate and advise on what is needed where. Hon. Temporary Speaker, this Bill talks about both the national Government and county governments. We do not want to have any gaps this time round. Although agriculture is a devolved function, we will not succeed if we assign part of the responsibility to county governments and another part to the national Government. I urge the Member who has brought this Bill to ensure that there is no gap. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
},
{
"id": 1569763,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1569763/?format=api",
"text_counter": 231,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Nyamira County, JP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Jerusha Momanyi",
"speaker": null,
"content": "There must also be adequate resources allocated to counties as we provide agricultural extension officers so that this sector is properly catered for. Farmers should be able to access fertilisers and guidance on the most appropriate livestock to rear depending with regions. Once resources are made available, extension officers should assist farmers in adopting new technologies in agricultural production. The county governments should be better resourced to ensure that sufficient support reaches farmers once the Bill goes through thereby having enough food for our country. A well-fed nation will prosper and help the economy to grow. I support, Hon. Temporary Speaker."
},
{
"id": 1569764,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1569764/?format=api",
"text_counter": 232,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. David Ochieng’",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you. Before I give a chance to the next Member to contribute, join me in welcoming students from Weithaga Boys High School from Kiharu Constituency, Murang’a County and St. Joseph Matiku Secondary School from Kibwezi West Constituency, Makueni County. They are welcome to follow our proceedings this afternoon and to learn what goes on in Parliament. The next speaker will be the Member for Embakasi South."
},
{
"id": 1569765,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1569765/?format=api",
"text_counter": 233,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Embakasi South, WDM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Julius Mawathe",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to the debate on the Agriculture and Livestock Extension Services Bill (Senate Bill No.12 of 2022). The Bill is long overdue, having been received last year. Now that it is here, we must make sure that we pass it. I stand to support it. A few years ago, the country used to have extension officers who supported farmers to produce quality products. Kenya was one of the top countries in production of coffee. Coffee and tea used to be among the top earners of foreign exchange for the country. Nowadays, agriculture has dwindled, contributing to 22 per cent of our GDP. It is not well supported through provision of enough knowledge and skills to farmers. There is need to equip farmers with information, technology and enough equipment so that they produce the best. There is need to mechanise and improve technology to the point of even using such items as drones. Technology has improved so much. In other countries, people are using drones to spray pesticides. There is need to equip farmers with enough information. The extension officers will do the same. A majority of the types of cows we are rearing in the country are the small, short Zebu species, yet we have better breeds that farmers can acquire at almost the same price. I have in mind breeds like Sahiwal, Brahman and Boran. A fully grown bull of the Zebu breed will earn a farmer between Ksh35, 000 and Ksh40, 000. A fully grown Boran cow will earn you between Ksh160, 000 and Ksh170, 000 but due to lack of information, connectivity and failure to devolve the knowledge that is available, our farmers still rear their small cows. There is no place in the country where we cannot grow anything we want. There is no place in the country where we cannot keep livestock. There are desert countries like Dubai and Qatar, which are excellently producing in greenhouses. All the food from Qatar Airlines is grown in a farm in Qatar, which is a desert. You can rear camels in Garissa, Moyale and Mandera. They just need a little bit of support. Nowadays there are excellent types of feeds like juncao napier grass. It can grow up to six metres tall and regrows quickly after being cut. One acre of this grass can feed 20 cows. I fully support the idea of extension officers. Agrovets in rural areas do not have the knowledge. If your cow or livestock is unwell, they cannot give proper prescription for your cow. However, with extension officers in place, farmers will be able to receive advice. I highly recommend that we ensure there is an extension officer in every ward. With 1,450 wards, that would mean 1,450 extension officers. We are still importing eggs from our neighbouring countries. We also import beans, maize and onions from our other neighbour in the south. With enough knowledge, we have the The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
},
{
"id": 1569766,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1569766/?format=api",
"text_counter": 234,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Embakasi South, WDM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Julius Mawathe",
"speaker": null,
"content": "capacity to grow our own because we have enough land. Some of us are farmers, and we can impart this knowledge to others through extension officers. A few decades ago, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock used to promote production of crops like cotton in specific regions. The cotton would then be harvested and sold to manufacturers like Kisumu Cotton Mills (KICOMI) and Raymond Woollen Mills (Kenya) Ltd, as it was then known. The extension officers will, therefore, be able to advise farmers on what to plant, bearing in mind the type and duration it will take to harvest. For instance, Peru, the second-largest producer and exporter of avocado, is our largest competitor. An extension officer can advise a farmer on the type of avocado to plant and the best time to plant it so as to harvest when the Peru avocados are not yet in the market, thereby getting a premium market price. This Bill is long overdue and I fully support it."
},
{
"id": 1569767,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1569767/?format=api",
"text_counter": 235,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. David Ochieng’",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Member for Turkana East."
},
{
"id": 1569768,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1569768/?format=api",
"text_counter": 236,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Turkana East, JP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Nicholas Ng’ikor",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for giving me this chance to add my voice to this important Bill. If we flash back to the Nyayo era, the work of extension officers was one of the services that the Government prioritised. This is because of the support that these officers gave to our farmers from the national level all the way to the village level. During those days, we had these officers in every village. Unfortunately, I do not know what happened to this country because these important services have slowly been phased out. At the moment, you cannot find these officers anywhere in our sub-locations, locations or divisions. Where I come from, we used to lose a lot of livestock because of drought. During those days, extension officers would give farmers early warning alerts, which would enable them to strategize on how to save their livestock. Nowadays, farmers are caught off guard and end up losing a lot of livestock because they are not prepared for what is coming. Our farmers need education. They need to know new farming techniques. Because of lack of these agricultural extension services, they cannot get these new technologies. We allocate money in this House to hire teachers for our schools, so that our children can get education. It is the same thing we need to do to our farmers. They need to be educated. They also need to get new technologies so that they can plant the right crops at the right time. By doing so, we can get enough food and avoid giving our people relief food like what we do in some parts of this country like North Eastern, Turkana and Samburu. If agricultural extension services can be taken closer to the people, they can do a lot of work and produce food in all the sectors of agriculture, livestock and fishing. Because they lack these services, they cannot produce food. As the world changes, climate change is coming in. These people do not know how to go around climate change because they lack these kinds of services. In our colleges, there are too many students who normally finish these courses in agriculture, but they loiter in the villages with all that knowledge. We need to support this Bill, so that we can hire these officers to provide services to our farmers. By doing so, we can continue talking about agriculture being the backbone of this country. This died when agriculture was devolved to the counties. Do you think it has just died? We need to strengthen the Bill and come up with the right ways of how these services will be handled by the county governments and the national Government. This will enable us to ensure that we do not have any gap that may bring confusion between the two levels of government. The agricultural extension services officers used to render services in our divisions. We have wards nowadays. For example, we have 30 wards in my county. If each ward can have an agricultural extension officer, our farmers can get more knowledge and improve their farming. With those few remarks, I support the Bill."
},
{
"id": 1569769,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1569769/?format=api",
"text_counter": 237,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. David Ochieng’",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Member for Tinderet. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
},
{
"id": 1569770,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1569770/?format=api",
"text_counter": 238,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Tinderet, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Julius Melly",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I support this Bill. I thank the Chairperson of the Departmental Committee on Agriculture and Livestock in the sense that this Bill will transform this country. Agricultural extension officers are the backbone of most agricultural economies worldwide. The good work they do leads to increased food production, foreign exchange earnings for nations and, more importantly, an increase in the income of those involved in agricultural activities. An agricultural extension officer has a lot of activities in livestock keeping, dairy farming and crop production. He is very important in the following ways. One, he educates the farmers on modern farming techniques, modern scientific ways of controlling pests and more importantly, engaging in proper seeds propagation. With all these activities, the farmer gets more income and by extension, the country gets the much-needed food. Farmers will get income to run their daily activities, pay school fees and do other things. Thirdly, the country will save on foreign exchange as it will not import food. We know that Kenya was the breadbasket of the region in the 1960s and 1970s. Back then, agricultural extension officers were found in almost every location. I grew up seeing extension officers in very good khaki uniforms across the villages. They would tell farmers how best to plant their seeds and organised them into cooperatives where they were able to save. Farmers were able to market their crops very well. We have forgotten what we saw when we were growing up, but we need to make agricultural extension officers part and parcel of life. I have seen the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development trying to reinvent the wheel. You cannot reinvent the wheel in this sector without extension officers. Extension officers are the nerve centre that will transform this country. We can be sugar, coffee and tea exporters and do marvellous things. Kenya has grown over the years in terms of agricultural production. Look at the case of meat. In the 1960s and 1970s, many countries bench-marked with our country, and we were at the top. However, we are doing very poorly today because extension officers have been neglected. They are no longer the core of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development. I ask this House to ensure that all the county governments and the national Government make it mandatory for all agricultural areas in this country to have extension officers because agriculture is the backbone of our country. Lastly, extension officers in arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) act as early warning systems. In case they foresee challenges in rainfall quantities, they can warn farmers early to sell their livestock. They will tell them when to stock grass and how to cope with water shortages. Hon. Mutunga, let us actualise the agriculture and livestock extension services as soon as possible. I support the Bill."
},
{
"id": 1569771,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1569771/?format=api",
"text_counter": 239,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kilifi North, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Owen Baya",
"speaker": null,
"content": " On a point of order, Hon. Temporary Speaker."
}
]
}