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{
    "id": 103287,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/103287/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 306,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Outa",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 133,
        "legal_name": "Fredrick Otieno Outa",
        "slug": "fredrick-outa"
    },
    "content": "Budgets through the so-called “Economic Stimulus Package” was not utilised well. Let me give you an example. The South-West Kano Irrigation Scheme, which is in my constituency, was given Kshs198 million. As I indicated before, if you go there today and ask the farmers how they have benefited from this money, which was channelled through the NIB, you will be surprised I have even reported to the Management of the NIB, because when the money went there, the engineers were not even able to have the farmers go through training to acquire knowledge for producing rice. What happened was that they just gave out seeds to farmers without even undertaking land preparation. So, most of the farmers in that area ended up eating the seeds, and there was no production of rice. I urge the Minister for Agriculture that even as we start the next session, her office should not leave rice production under the National Irrigation Board (NIB). She should take full mandate so that we can be able to give this country enough food. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, research is also lacking in these irrigation schemes. The farmers still use old technology. If you visit my constituency today, you will find that the irrigation schemes we still use the old technology of flooding farms before they cultivate them. You can see the amount of water that is used in that area. That has affected the high yield of rice in that area. Secondly, since the inception of these irrigation schemes, there has never been enough research to come up with what we call a “good seed” for the farmers. Farmers are just left to get their hands on any rice seed. The one which is marketable in this country like pishori has been mixed with other seeds. We, therefore, do not have pure pishori rice in this country. I urge my friend, the Minister for Agriculture, to look into ways of purifying the pishori seed. This is because it is the only seed that could give most farmers good returns after harvesting. Cheap imports of rice from other countries have flooded this nation and this has prevented our farmers to compete with others. So, if we can be able to purify the pishori seed so that farmers do not get contaminated seeds, we can be able to boost not only food security but also support our farmers in their income. With those few remarks, I would like to urge the Minister for Agriculture to take the full mandate of rice production in all the irrigation schemes in this country."
}