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{
    "id": 1159179,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1159179/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 419,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Ochillo-Ayacko",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "engaged our people are no longer being produced. These crops like cotton which would have engaged our people as farmers, traders and business people are no longer been produced. Part of the reason for which we have runaway employment is because we are not growing cash crops that were hitherto putting monies in our pockets. This is a good Bill because it is giving us an opportunity to bend backwards into the past, pick up from where we went wrong, engage in remedial activities and give the future a chance to earn from what God gave us by way of land, people and international market for crops like cotton. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, my county has a vast area called Nyatike which is several square miles. It boarders Lake Victoria. It has black cotton soil. It has many people who, if given a chance would be able to grow this crop, profit from it and be productive citizens of Kenya and therefore citizens of the world. So, I welcome the propositions in this Bill that we need to relook at as a House of law that allocate resources in matters cotton so that we fix the legal issues and do the legal engineering that has not been done in the past. The failure to do so has contributed to the dwindling fortunes that people who depend on cotton are being subjected to. So, it is a good Bill and I want to support it unreservedly. Those who understand agriculture, it is about two things. It is about production and market. What a county government and the National Government should do is to enhance the capacity and ability to create an enabling environment so that productivity is made possible or increased among the people who want to engage in that activity. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the county governments and the National Government must ensure that cotton farmers have access to the best quality of seeds, fertilizers and extension service workers. After receiving services from those people or institutions, farmers should be in a position to produce good quality and high quantities of cotton. Once, that happens it is still the obligation of the county governments and the National Government to ensure that what has been produced in the quantities that we call high and the in the qualities that we say is good has access to market and market that gives return that enables the farmer or those involved in the value chain what is called reasonable returns. If there are no reasonable returns, then just like any other business the person involved in that excursion gets disinterested. What needs to be done and has not been done in the past is to give the cotton growers, farmers and the associated industries access to markets that would pay handsomely or beautifully. If I say handsomely some people think that I am not appreciating the feminine gender. We want a cotton industry that pays beautifully for the output the farmers give when it comes to crops. Once that is done then the engagement becomes self sustaining. We previously had arrangements such as the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) not just for Kenya but for other places to access the international market so that our farmers would be assisted, put together in cooperative societies, in groups in order to access the international market. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, such arrangements failed by the wayside and farmers were left to hang dry out there without guaranteed returns for their output. That contributed heavily to the demise of the once or previously robust cotton industry."
}