Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1179464,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1179464/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 2777,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mosop, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Abraham Kirwa",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker for this opportunity that you have given me to support this Policy on transforming crop, livestock and fisheries production in our country. As many Members have supported this Policy, I stand here as a testimony and knowing that since I was a child, we as a family have depended on agriculture. As we bring in this Motion, it is crucial because most of the citizens of this country depend on agriculture; either crop, livestock or fisheries. So, it really needs a lot of attention as a nation. We have shifted from putting a lot of effort to leaving agriculture to only farmers. One of the things that we need to do as a nation is to invest in agriculture especially, in crops. Most of the seeds that we have, have issues. Most farmers have moved from farming to selling their land for other things because they do not get any support. Some time back we used to have the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) which used to provide finances to the farmers so that they can do commercial farming but that Corporation has really gone down. Two, most of the farmers have been discouraged because of lack of market. Most of them would go into production but once they harvest their crops, they lack market for them. Three, is the issue infrastructure. The big problem most of the counties have is that they have produce, but moving them from the farm to the market is a problem; hence, making the farmers get really frustrated. For the last few weeks, we have been discussing the issue of maize. Most farmers moved away from farming maize to other cash crops because the price of maize went down, and continues to go down. We have shortage of maize in the country because the farmers shifted from farming maize. As such, we now depend on importation of maize from other countries. If as a nation we had invested a lot of our resources in ensuring that the farmers get good prices, given them good seeds and good support, there would be no time that we would have gone out to look for maize from other countries at very high price. As a nation, we really need to sit down and re-think. Most of the farms now have been subdivided into small farms. It is not even viable to do commercial farming. As such, we need to re-think as a nation on how to move people from their farms to urban areas so that we can free most of the land. Once we do it, we will be able to do some commercial farming. People are now used to two, three or five acres and with it, you cannot be able to produce enough. But if we move those citizens to urban areas and figure a way to sustain them, free the land and leave a few individuals to do commercial farming, we will have enough produce. Because of climate change which continues to be a big problem, we need to do irrigation. Nations like Egypt and Israel have been able to do a lot of production because they do drip and all sorts of irrigation. They do a good job in feeding their citizens. There is no time that you will hear these nations running out of money The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}