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"content": "quite a number of dams when the very good rainfall came, I think we would have harvested a lot of water. We should remember that there are countries which have used irrigation technology to move from a point of being food seekers from other countries to having surplus food. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, one example of such a country is India: If you do recall, in the 1960s and the 1970s, India was a food seeking country. It was always asking for food â it was relying on food assistance from the Government of USA. Through the utilization, first of all, of technology and also investing in substantial resources in the construction of dams, India, with such a large population, has now moved from that deplorable situation of being a food seeking country to now, when it is not only self-sufficient in food, but also actually exports food! In fact, even when we had this drought, we got some information that India was in a position to sell us maize. It was only that our people did not want that variety of food; I believe that was the issue. But we could have bought it. India does not, any more, import wheat; it is self-sufficient! India does not import milk, and it has formed very good management teams. One can go country by country and find that there are countries which were food-seeking countries, but because of harvesting rain water, they have done extremely well, and they are in a position where they are selling it. Why can we not do the same? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the hon. Member who spoke just before me did give the example of Israel. Well, Israel is an extremely good example. If you look at Israel, it is basically a desert country, but it has done a good deal of wonders. They are using irrigation. But, again, what we have also got to understand is that we have to ensure that we embrace the right technology in irrigation, so that we do not waste so much water in irrigation. Also, mark you, if we use irrigation in an extremely extravagant manner, then that will also affect the quality of soil. The Israelis seem to have been the first ones to recognize that danger. They are a country which is a semi-desert; they introduced drip irrigation; they have been able to grow food for themselves; they are self-sufficient. They even went much further and got into growing of cash crops like cut flowers. Israel was the first one to use irrigation to grow this one. They are the people who get substantial resources by exporting horticulture, especially cut flowers. They are the ones who have also brought that technology to us; we embraced that one very well. The good news today is that Kenya is now a leading country in the export of cut flowers. Apart from the money we get, is the fact that horticulture employs a lot of our own people. Suppose we also replicated that in the production of other crops? We know that the greater part of this country is semi-arid. We have not yet moved into that one to ensure that we convert the greater part of this country, which is semi-arid, into a productive area. We could exploit a lot of potential in the semi-arid lands. That way, we would not only feed all our people but we would also have enough food to export. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, therefore, we should take this Motion seriously. As it resolutely states, we do not want any more to go back to where we were before the rains came, because our people really suffered. The economy suffered. We can do it. I hope that the Minister for Agriculture will forgive me. There was some place we were talking about the issue of irrigation and she eloquently reminded us that during the days when Zimbabwe was very productive, not only was it self-sufficient in food, it was also exporting food."
}