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{
    "id": 103278,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/103278/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 297,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Dr. Nuh",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 114,
        "legal_name": "Nuh Nassir Abdi",
        "slug": "nuh-abdi"
    },
    "content": "said before, we do not have a contract with the Indian Ocean that we fill with the waters of River Tana and many others. If this water was harnessed along the River Tana where you and I come from, Bura, Garsen, Galole, up to Mwingi, Tharaka and Nithi constituencies, I think the amount of food that would have been produced from along the rivers would have been sufficient to not only provide food for this country but even for the whole of East and Central Africa. But this is not harnessed. The potential is there, the workforce is there, our people are going to bed hungry every other night; not because they did not have land to till, not because they do not have the muscle to farm but it is because the Government has not been providing the impetus. It has not been providing that level where these farmers can kick off their farming attitudes. That should be done through provision of farm inputs, availability of technical personnel to go and supervise the the farming. I think the current situation where the Government provided some subsidy in terms of fertilizer and seeds to many irrigation schemes across the country and now we are saying the potential has not been realised because we are complaining and crying that because the maize has not been bought in good time and it is rotting in farms, they talk of aflatoxin and the farmer even after putting the muscle, the input, the mind and the work for three or four months of tireless work in the farms, they have not realised the benefits of why they have been toiling for the months. It is because of planning; if this maize was bought in good time from the farmer, then they should have been ready for the next season that is kicking off already. But now, the farmers are even worried to say that, ‘okay, fine why go to the farms again to till if the three months toil has not been realised.’ So, at least we expected that if the irrigation schemes kicked off then we would be thinking of even having more irrigation schemes whether small holder or big scale schemes across the country. So I would urge that this Motion be given the importance it deserves; let the Government avail funds to makes sure we have a kick off of these small holder irrigation schemes as pilots projects maybe, to begin with in all the constituencies just as we are having similar packages for constituencies in various other departments and Ministries like health, education and others. We are now having over-reliance on rain fed agriculture and even sand irrigation. The farmers along the River Tana have always been on the toe end. Once the river has a very low level of water, they cannot irrigate their farms because they do not have the inputs. If the river floods a second time, it washes away all their crops. We have two disasters; one entirely bridging on the side of drought and one entirely just because we are unable to harness our water in the proper way, where now they lose all their effort. That is why the smallholder irrigation schemes would be a blessing for our people not only along the River Tana but across the country. A few MPs accompanied the Minister for Agriculture and the Minister for Water and Irrigation last year to Israel, and I happened to be one of them. It is amazing that Israel, as dry as it is, was able to have green everywhere as if they were voting for the new Constitution. If a country as dry as Israel is able to have plantations of all sorts of trees, including the mangoes from Hola, Garsen and Bura, why not Kenya when we have all this water being wasted, or allowed to go and fill lakes and rivers across borders?"
}