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{
"id": 1086909,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1086909/?format=api",
"text_counter": 483,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Tinderet, JP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Julius Melly",
"speaker": {
"id": 12849,
"legal_name": "Julius Kipbiwot Melly",
"slug": "julius-kipbiwot-melly"
},
"content": "This Bill provides, among other things, how to make the Kenyan farmer independent and to have means. When we were growing up, our parents were sugar-cane farmers and they were able to pay our school fees and hospital bills. With the advent of the Crops Act, the sugar industry was relegated to a sub-sector. We realised that the Act effectively brought the sugar industry down. It led to the decline of the management of the Sugar Board. Sugar-cane was considered non- profitable. In fact, many of the sugar barons in this country have made this country a market instead of allowing the farmers themselves to produce the crop. This Bill covers three things. One, it establishes the Sugar Board which is going to ensure that all farmers’ needs are addressed. Farmers will have a say on what they are supposed to do. Two, it will establish sugar development levy which is going to give farmers loans to procure inputs like fertiliser. Many sugar-cane farmers in my constituency produce a lot of sugar-cane, but a number of private companies, though they normally pick cane from farmers, also repackage imported sugar in their factories. Many crops in the farms now are 20 to 24 months old and yet, mature cane should be 18 months old. This Bill covers that. In fact, it disallows zoning. We are in a free market. There is no way you will force me to sell my sugar-cane to factory A or B and yet, factory C, even if it is 100 kilometres away, is able to pay. I want to laud Hon. Wamunyinyi and the Committee for disallowing zoning in this country. The sugar development fund has been subdivided into three. One, it is going to develop infrastructure. You realise that many of the machinery in the sugar industries are very heavy while most of the roads are worn out. About 40 per cent of the fund will be used in the development of infrastructure, 20 per cent will be ploughed back for the development of farms and 5 per cent will be used for farmers’ representatives and activism. I laud this because we have a number of sugar associations such as Kenya Sugar Growers and Kenya Federation of Sugar Farmers. Those are bodies that have tried to press the Government on sugar matters. They have been the only voice of farmers and yet, nobody has ever heard about them. Through this Bill, the bodies will have means of operation. Farmers have been contributing money from their pockets to voice issues that are affecting them. With this Bill, they will have a resource to assist them. The establishment of the Kenya Sugar Research Foundation is very important. The Foundation has been in existence in this country for many years. But with the advent of the Crops Act in 2013, it became an appendage of KALRO and nobody funded it. If you go to Kibos Sugar Research Centre, you will find that a number of sugar-cane varieties have been developed. They mature early, have better sucrose content and they will give farmers better returns. Earlier on, the Crops Act, 2013, did not give funds for the establishment of the Kenya Sugar Research Foundation. It is very important because it will give jobs to our youth, give good varieties of sugar and enable this country to develop the sugar industry very well. With that particular research, we will become a centre of crop development especially on sugar. This Bill also looks into the issue of licensing of mills and puts into consideration the stoppage of mushrooming millers who do not have sugar-cane, but their duty is to build mills so that they can re-package imported or raw sugar. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, you have heard what the Leader of the Majority Party has said; that a number of uncontrolled mushrooming millers do not have nuclear or extension farms but have established factories. In those pseudo factories, they are re-packaging imported sugar. This Bill puts control on establishment of non-essential sugar mills. Those are the mills which are not only meant to serve farmers, but are meant to package imported sugar and re- distribute it in the country under the guise that they pick a few crops from the farmer, assume that 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."
}