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{
    "id": 1165860,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1165860/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 42,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Khaniri",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 171,
        "legal_name": "George Munyasa Khaniri",
        "slug": "george-khaniri"
    },
    "content": "Let us not forget the hundreds of times farmers have had to strike due to unfair treatment and losses. Our farmers do not seem to be respected and their rights are always being infringed. If it is not high taxes of fertilizers today, it is unfair treatment tomorrow or un-kept promises. Just the other day, tea farmers had to uproot their crops due to low returns. Imagine how bad it was for them to choose to lose everything. If all we ever hear is farmers complaining about poor treatment, low returns and losses, would our youth or anyone, for that matter, be motivated to venture into agriculture? Mr. Speaker, Sir, we, as a nation, have been blessed with fertile soils and numerous natural resources that give us a head start to successful agriculture. Why are we not maximizing on these resources? To see the youth fearing to use these resources freely is quite heartbreaking. The unfortunate thing is that when the dry season starts, you will hear everyone complaining about the lack of food. Prices of maize and other food products will possibly increase yet farmers will still not receive good yield. We need to find out what we are doing wrong as a country and create better terms and opportunities for our farmers, especially for our youth who would love to venture into farming. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the Government has not treated farmers fairly over the years and this needs to come to an end. Let us, as a Government, create urgency in ensuring that farmers are not always crying and complaining. We can develop mandates to implement action plans that ensure far better benefits from our nation’s soil to individual farmers, micro, small and medium-sized players. Further, the way agriculture is taught can be revamped to make it more attractive to our youth. Teachers should also be offered new training and resources to ensure intake and retention of interested, innovative young minds in formal and informal learning. The benefits of agriculture to other sectors should also be discussed more to have these conversations. It should be taken seriously as an important educational platform as this is the quickest way to gain the attention of our youth. All these and other interventions should be youth pioneered and led in the public and private sectors to start and continue the actions needed to revive youth interest in agriculture for the good of all Kenyans. The future of agriculture is highly dependent on our youth’s interest in that sector. It would be wise of us to make more effort in encouraging interest in this sector."
}