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{
    "id": 1159121,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1159121/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 361,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Ongeri",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 124,
        "legal_name": "Samson Kegeo Ongeri",
        "slug": "samson-ongeri"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to contribute on this very important Bill, the Cotton Industry Development Bill of 2021. The purpose of this Bill is to be able to initiate a legal framework, a policy framework and other attendant instruments to be able to make the cotton industry very buoyant within the agricultural sector. One of the main elements in any agricultural sector is the element of production. You know one of the problems we have in this country in many of our cash crops that we are growing today is the question of rain-fed processes where the rains are unpredictable. Therefore, when the farmers plant their crops, including the cotton seeds when they are planted and there are insufficient rains, they run into difficulty in getting the right production, right from the beginning. One of the problems that beset the farming industry is the production element of it yet we do not have the correct certified seed at that level. We also may not have the enough rainfall at that moment. One of the things which is now complicating the farmers’ activities who are toiling every other day to produce the other cash crops, is the question of fertilizer. It is becoming beyond reach. We have an international crisis in one way or the other where we are always dependent upon supply of fertilizers. Today, to plant products in Kenya, be it maize, beans or other products like tea, you will realize that Diammonium phosphate (DAP) fertilizer costs more than Kshs6,000. The poor peasant farmer cannot afford this kind of cost."
}