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{
    "id": 1251041,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1251041/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 361,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Oburu",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 194,
        "legal_name": "Oburu Ngona Odinga",
        "slug": "oburu-odinga"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, for the opportunity. I would like to start by thanking Sen. Tabitha Mutinda for bringing this important Bill. It is always said that agriculture is the backbone of the economy of our country. However, when it comes to allocation of resources, agriculture is ignored. In the Malabo Declaration that Kenya ratified, it was agreed that African countries should allocate at least 10 per cent of their budgets to agriculture. However, in our country, agriculture gets about 4 or 5 per cent. We have not moved closer to the 10 per cent Malabo Declaration and yet we keep on saying that agriculture is the backbone of our economy. How can it be the backbone of our economy when we do not allocate resources to it? You have to act and the action should support what you say. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this sector of agriculture feeds our country. Without being self-sufficient in food production, you cannot be independent because hungry people can never even respect democracy. Democracy cannot be natured in our country properly if we do not strategise to feed our people with the basic thing which is food. Agriculture used to be taken seriously by the colonial authorities. We used to have agricultural extension officers coming into the villages with uniforms and green belts written AD, (Agricultural Department). These agricultural extension officers used to tell people exactly the type of seeds to plant, when to prepare the soil, when to expect the rains because they were connecting with the weather men and exactly the dates you should plant. These officers continued up to sometimes during independence. However, there is a time when the policy of the Government changed and it left agricultural extension to the private sector. As it now stands, if you want a veterinary doctor to come and vaccinate your animal, give medicine or offer service, you have to pay for it. We are living in a poverty-stricken country. Our people cannot afford the payment for these extension services. When an agricultural extension officer goes to a farmer, a farmer is not just doing crops; he is planting maize, beans or cassava, he is also keeping chicken, livestock, rearing bees and all sorts of things. Therefore, if you have a bee extension officer coming tomorrow, the other day a livestock officer coming, next a crops officer for a specific crop is coming and the other day another one is coming for tea or coffee, you confuse this farmer. You need all round extension officers. One officer who can go and offer all the services necessary for extension. They need to be trained on how to dispense that knowledge to the farmer. One extension officer can be all round and deal with a farmer in all the areas the farmer is involved with. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I do not see this Bill addressing the most important thing. The Bill is dealing mainly with the formation of a certain policy board upstairs, somewhere in the national Government."
}