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{
    "id": 1046135,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1046135/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 126,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Sakaja",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13131,
        "legal_name": "Johnson Arthur Sakaja",
        "slug": "johnson-arthur-sakaja"
    },
    "content": "i is looking at. Even on this one, they will try and make light of it and say that we are legislating on ndengu, but it is an important issue to legislate on. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I am sitting next to the Chairperson of the Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries. He will tell you that agriculture contributes 60 per cent of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or economic activities. However, I am always at pains to reconcile a mismatch in economics; that despite agriculture contributing to 60 per cent of our GDP, its contribution to revenue is less than five per cent. It is because of a number of issues. First, as a country, our agriculture has mainly been subsistence, and we have not moved to value addition. If you do not move to value addition, you find that your people are very busy in this economic activity, but in terms of its contribution to the national revenue, it is still very low. That is an area that I hope and know that the Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries is really focused on. How do we improve or add value? Why is it that across the world, many of the products on the shelves have a huge Kenyan component, whether it is our tea or coffee, but locally, we are getting very little out of it? That is a discussion we must have as a country. We must have a discussion on how to add value to a lot of our crops like avocado, bananas and maize. In the part of the country where I am from, of course I am from Nairobi, but where I trace ancestry, the biggest cause of poverty is sugarcane and maize. We keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result, yet at this point---The reason we are focused on some of those crops is because that is where the mzungu left us. Today, if you go to Mumias or Kakamega and bring in a packet of sugar from Brazil, from the factory to the shipping, to the tax that is paid, to transport it from Mombasa, it will be cheaper than the sugar from Mumias. People have been afraid to discuss the real problems in agriculture. This is because the real problems can only be discussed when we decide to put the politics aside and address the real issues. Why is it not doing well? Is that the best crop to be grown in that area? Is this the best crop to be grown in a specific area? Today if you go to Kitale, many of our farmers including me are moving away from maize. We are looking at other crops that are doing much better and giving better yields instead of waiting for one year to go and line your trucks at the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) and get nothing. I think maize is now selling at Kshs2,300 a bag."
}