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{
    "id": 1179436,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1179436/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 2749,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kiharu, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Ndindi Nyoro",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "areas that are mechanised within our agricultural sector. We must also note that many times we confuse farming and agriculture. Farming by all accounts in the entire value chain of agriculture accounts partly for 20 per cent. The value chain includes transportation, warehousing and value addition from farm to fork. Our farmers only account for about 20 per cent. This is the reason we must be deliberate in trying to capture as much as possible the value from the chain, and especially this value going to farmers. They work the most. They do most of the job but their returns are not commensurate to the effort that they put in. In regards to the debate we have in our country around food prices, especially maize, we must be very clear as a Government and leadership not to confuse the role of the farmer or government in as far as the farmer and the Kenyan consumer is concerned. If we attach these two things together, one of the parties will be disenfranchised. If we assume that the role of the farmer is to feed Kenyans, then we will be going the wrong direction. The Government has peculiar roles which are diverse. One of it is to make sure all Kenyans are fed. However, on the other side, they make sure that farmers are well remunerated. In economics, we usually give analogies. One of them is that it is not by the benevolence of the baker that we get our daily bread or that of the butcher that we get meat. In this respect, it is not by the benevolence of the farmer that we get our daily meal. It is out of the self-interest to make money that we get unintended consequences. That should be left at that. The farmers should be left to pursue their margins. However, on the other side, the Government must use other instruments to make sure that the Kenyan consumers are not paying exorbitantly for their daily meal. Hon. Temporary Speaker, if you look at the whole Kenyan infrastructure in terms of the economy, you will find that we are net importers of food. We call ourselves an agricultural economy but the irony is that we are net importers of food. Another irony is that economies that are industrial and have robust manufacturing sectors have a problem of overfeeding their people. It is a paradox that countries that assume the role of being agrarian can barely feed themselves. I am just trying to bring the point that we must cut down our imports. When we have increased demand in our country, instead of being filled by local production both in agriculture and manufacturing, we import to fill the gap. Therefore, we remain a country which is agrarian in production but a fourth industrial, when it comes to consumption. We consume high technology items but on the other side of production we are very banal and basic. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I support the Motion."
}