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{
"id": 1623402,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1623402/?format=api",
"text_counter": 152,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kilgoris, KANU",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Julius Sunkuli",
"speaker": null,
"content": "The need for extension officers has become even more important. Before, coffee growing was a matter for the Mount Kenya region: Embu, Meru and Kiambu, which was a major coffee area. Today, because of the attraction of real estate, Kiambu is no longer a very strong coffee area. Now, areas like Kilgoris, Kitale and some parts of Uasin Gishu are the new areas of coffee growing. But the people of that area do not have an inherited knowledge of coffee growing. So, if we do not have extension officers going to the new areas where new crops are growing, who will teach the farmers of that area how to grow those crops? We have been very good at keeping our cattle in Maasai areas. But the shrinking land has made it necessary that we do more scientific breeding of cows. If we do not have extension officers, who is going to train the people how to improve their breeds? It is so important, because of the shifting nature of our economy, that we have people who are experts who train our people. Today, my place in Transmara does well mainly in sugar cane and coffee. But where are the extension officers to help train these people? In many areas of our pastoralist communities, the only doctor you get to inject your cows is the owner of the cow. Everybody knows that if you want to inject a cow, you just apply 10 cc of penicillin, Terramycin or something of that kind. But there is self-medication, if I may use the term, of our cows, by people who have not been trained, but believe they have the knowledge, even if the knowledge is very old, and is the only thing we have. So, farmers are all on their own. There is nobody out there to help them. So, it is important that even as we keep singing this song about devolution, because I know it is in fashion to say devolution is very good, but in some areas, it is costing us. We must ask the governors if they are ready to handle agriculture, or take it back to the centre. If they are not doing it, and the centre cannot be allowed to do it, then who is going to do it? We cannot afford to give lip service to agriculture. We have to say that agriculture is important, and we have to put our money where our mouth is. We cannot keep saying that yes, we are an agricultural country, yet we are not putting money, skills and everything that we need there. Hon. Deputy Speaker, I beg to support."
},
{
"id": 1623403,
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"text_counter": 153,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Deputy Speaker",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "The Member for Moiben, Hon. Phylis Bartoo."
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{
"id": 1623404,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1623404/?format=api",
"text_counter": 154,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Moiben, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Phylis Bartoo",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to also contribute to this Bill on the Agriculture and Livestock Extension Services. I want to thank the Chair, the Departmental Committee on Agriculture and Livestock, for bringing this very important Bill to Parliament. Once upon a time, before the International Monetary Fund (IMF) brought the structural adjustment programmes, extension services were very vibrant in our communities and particularly, Uasin Gishu. With time, such services diminished until a time when we no longer have such services. Agriculture is a very important aspect of our societies. It is the backbone of our country, especially where I come from, Uasin Gishu, where we are mainly farmers. This Bill is going to be very important for us because agriculture is the only thing on which the country can depend now. We have cases of unemployment, young people who graduate from school and are at home with no access to employment, yet we have vast land in Kenya. So, that is an area which needs to be resourced, established, and needs capacity, so that we can, at least, get people going to the farms, and get quality food from agriculture. We can even depend on it for exporting and international exchange, boosting the economy of our country. We have institutions of higher learning that are premier in research. Case in point is Egerton University. I know because I taught in that institution once upon a time. We have a lot of research which has been done in agriculture. We have credible professors like Professor Kahi, Professor Bebe and Professor Kemunto, who have pioneered research in agriculture, and they have generated a lot of knowledge."
},
{
"id": 1623405,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1623405/?format=api",
"text_counter": 155,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Moiben, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Phylis Bartoo",
"speaker": null,
"content": "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": 1623406,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1623406/?format=api",
"text_counter": 156,
"type": "scene",
"speaker_name": "",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "[The Deputy Speaker (Hon. Gladys Boss) left the Chair]"
},
{
"id": 1623407,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1623407/?format=api",
"text_counter": 157,
"type": "scene",
"speaker_name": "",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "[The Temporary Speaker (Hon. David Ochieng’) took the Chair]"
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{
"id": 1623408,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1623408/?format=api",
"text_counter": 158,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Moiben, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Phylis Bartoo",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Hon. Temporary Speaker, they will transfer that knowledge to young people but there is a disconnect between the knowledge and the farmer. So, that information is just left in libraries and archives and may be in publications as theoretical papers. Nobody has translated that information to transform livelihoods, our farms or farmers. Hon. Temporary Speaker, if this Bill is given the justice it deserves, I am sure we will see some transformation. I am a product of agriculture; I went to school through agriculture because my parents were purely farmers, and we used to see people going around the farmers getting information and giving advice to our parents. They would advise them on the best practices, what type of animal breeds to keep, when there is a looming disease in the community and they would prepare them. Unfortunately, those services kept on dwindling; and now, I realise it seems the Government has not been employing extension experts to advise farmers. Farmers have been left at the mercy of quacks who masquerade as extension officers and charge them very exorbitant prices. I believe this Bill will solve such problems in our society so that we can get the best experts who are trained, who have the knowledge, capacity and who can train farmers in the language they understand. This is because not all farmers are educated. The Ministry of Agriculture is encouraging farmers, like in my community, to plant all sorts of crops, and keep all sorts of animals but without the relevant knowledge to go about it. For example, they are just sending coffee seedlings, avocado seedlings and different breeds of animals; these farmers are just on the receiving end. We politicians, also when we visit, we encourage them to diversify and plant different varieties of seeds but from a layman’s perspective. I am sure we are heading in the right direction because we will be able to get experts who will not just go to the field to train the farmers but mentor them and build capacity. With time, agriculture will transform our societies in a meaningful way. I also like the idea that in this Bill, licences will be given to the extension officers. They will be vetted to be licensed so that whenever they go to the field, they have proof that they are licensed officers to train farmers so that we eliminate cases like the one I referred to earlier about masquerades who visit homes in uniform and purport to be experts in everything. They talk about everything and we are not sure whether they have the capacity or know how of whatever they are professing. I support this Bill and look forward to a time when our farmers will get support, knowledge and capacity. I also read in the Bill that they will be well facilitated with loans to carry out the farming practices. So, I think it is a move in the right direction. Kenya being an agricultural country, we can take up agriculture and improve our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker."
},
{
"id": 1623409,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1623409/?format=api",
"text_counter": 159,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. David Ochieng’",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Well said. Hon. Members, join me in recognising and welcoming students seated at the Speaker’s Gallery. They are: Mt. Kenya State Road Academy, Kieni Constituency, Nyeri County and St. Benedict’s Wamutitu Secondary School, Mukurweini Constituency, Nyeri County. We also have students from Tassia Primary School, Embakasi East, Nairobi County who are seated in the Public Gallery. They are welcome to follow our Proceedings this morning and hope their visit here helps in their scope and mind in terms of what they are doing in school these days. Thank you. Next will be the Member for Tetu Constituency."
},
{
"id": 1623410,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1623410/?format=api",
"text_counter": 160,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Tetu, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Geoffrey Wandeto",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker for the opportunity. However, before I talk about the Bill before us, allow me to join you in warmly welcoming the students from Kieni and Mukurweini constituencies. They are my neighbours. 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": 1623411,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1623411/?format=api",
"text_counter": 161,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Tetu, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Geoffrey Wandeto",
"speaker": null,
"content": "On behalf of Hon. Kaguchia and Hon. Wainaina who are not here, I warmly welcome them to Parliament. I ask them to work hard and hopefully, a few of them will come to this House one day. That said, Hon. Temporary Speaker, allow me to lend my voice in support of the Agriculture and Livestock Extension Services Bill (Senate Bill No.12 of 2022). Growing up in rural Kenya in the 1980s and 1990s, I think we all witnessed the transformative power of agriculture. Most of us were educated by proceeds of coffee, tea and other crops and that is when there was money in farming. One of the catalysts then, was the presence of these agricultural extension officers but over the years, we have seen a very systematic collapse of these services and the final nail on the coffin came in 2012, I believe, when we finally devolved agriculture. As I have said in this House before, it is sad that a lot of good things that were devolved died on the floor of the counties. Agriculture despite being about 33 per cent of our GDP, contributes nearly 70 per cent in terms of employment and support for rural livelihoods. Yesterday, I came across a very interesting chat which was comparing crop production between Kenya and Tanzania, and the comparison years were 1961 and 2023. You realise that on maize, I think in 1961, we were producing an upward of a million metric tonnes of maize and Tanzania was only doing about 300,000. Today, we have about 3 million while Tanzania is at about 6 million and that is why we have become a net importer of Tanzanian maize. The same goes to rice, beans and very many other crops and as much as we may have ‘beef’ currently with Tanzania, we will have to admit that when they tell us that sarcastically in Kiswahili jirani hatachakula hana (our neighbours lack food) they really mean it because over time, we have let the agriculture sector down. Hon. Temporary Speaker, as land sizes shrink, as the vagaries of climate change affect us and as we deal with all the challenges that we have, productivity continues to go down. We have to make interventions to ensure that our farmers can produce more on the small pieces of land that they have. This calls for improved husbandry methods, better seeds, more effective use of pesticides and fertilisers, and disease control. Agricultural extension officers played this role. Since this function was taken to the counties, we have faced challenges. I have a sister who is an Agricultural Extension Officer and she gives me horrendous stories. Sometimes, she spends a month or two in the office without going to the field because her county cannot provide transport. There are also no tools to help farmers, even though she works in an agriculturally rich county. We must start introspecting on what we need to do about this problem. I am happy because the Bill that is before us seeks to revitalise this service. It is very timely. However, I am not a strong believer that every problem in this country will be solved by the Government. In fact, Government is fairly poor at solving problems. It is good at policy and creating an enabling environment. However, this problem was handed over to the counties. They were given staff, but due to challenges, especially corruption, we are not seeing results. I have said in this House that the only thing we have 100 per cent successfully devolved is corruption. Because of these problems, we must start introspecting creating a framework for professional services. Today, in rural areas, even when there is no medicine in the local clinic, one can still go to a private doctor. So, how do we ensure that farmers who can afford it have access to commercialised extension services? If you look at big horticultural companies, especially those operating in parts of the Rift Valley and Mount Kenya, they run their own extension services. They have officers who advise farmers on how to improve productivity. How can we ensure we come up with a model where we can certify, register and regulate commercial extension officers? They can even be community-based, just like the Community Health Promoters (CHPs). They can be small, professional and community-based officers who can help do crop, milk or product share with the farmers. For instance, if they help a farmer improve productivity 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."
}
]
}