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{
    "id": 1158887,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1158887/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 127,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Ndwiga",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 278,
        "legal_name": "Peter Njeru Ndwiga",
        "slug": "peter-ndwiga"
    },
    "content": "Even if you were to compensate that farmer after they have planted, then the consumer price of that product will be expensive. Therefore, this country will be sinking in aberrance of inflation if we do not have proper plans. I am happy that Sen. Khaniri has brought this issue here. Let us examine whether our meteorological department can give us forecasts that can help us to plan. They should be able to tell us when we will have rains and drought, so that the country can plan. If you do not have that, then you cannot call yourself a country. Post-independence, we never used to import wheat or maize, but today, that is what we are doing. Some people will tell you that it is because of population explosion, but that is not true. We knew that the population was going to increase and needed to plan accordingly, so that as population increases, there is enough food in the country to feed Kenyans. I support the Statement by Sen. Khaniri. As the Committee on Agriculture, most of the Bills that we bring to this House, and most of the programmes we have had in the last five years, the problem has been implementation. Projects are not implemented because the Ministry of Agriculture is busy politicking and doing other useless things, instead of concentrating on their mandate. Agriculture is a devolved function and Kenyans, in their wisdom, devolved agriculture. We should focus on what agriculture was and do not need to reinvent the wheel. Most of these programmes have been there. What we need now is to look at the institutions and the most important institution is the Meteorological Department. Let us make sure that we get accurate weather forecasts. If you travel to Europe, like most of you have, if you are told that in the next two hours it will rain, then it will do so. If you are told that tomorrow there will be snow, then there will be snow. If you are told that next week there will sunshine throughout, then that is what will occur. In this country, it is impossible to predict when to plant. Farmers will plant because they have received information that is not verifiable. After planting, there is no rain. Then rain comes after two weeks. How can we pride ourselves that we are an agricultural country when we are unable to do basic planning? I thank you."
}