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{
    "id": 1251112,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1251112/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 432,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Mungatana, MGH",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker. Your Bill might be mutilated totally, but the product that will come after all these amendments and all these beautiful ideas that are coming in, will make it better. Take it in good spirit. When I read the title of this Bill, I was excited because I thought now we are going to deal with the problem. This is because the problem is that we do not have agricultural extension officers. So, what is our response? Our solution is a legislative proposal that will have those agricultural extension officers in place, so that we solve the problem that we are dealing with. Madam Temporary Speaker, when I read this Bill, I was disappointed because it has created the normal board. One of the Speakers here said a very important thing that it is really bordering on unconstitutionality. This is because the Bill is talking about a national Board, a Cabinet Secretary, a Permanent Secretary and so on. It is not answering the question that there are no agricultural extension officers. We need those extension officers on the ground. The legislative proposal is not answering that question. I am asking my pleasant colleague to rework this whole thing. We cannot have an extension services legislation and agriculture in general is devolved under the Constitution that we have. The entire Bill is discussing how to engage a Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the qualifications of a board member and whatnot, while the real issue is not being discussed. It needs to be totally reworked starting with the title. I really support what Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale has said, we should rename it as the county, start with the word “county” and then go on with all those words that you have used. Madam Temporary Speaker, last week, I was at home and I was engaging the youth in a village called Golbanti. These are youths who had asked me to support their sporting activities. When I engaged them, I asked them, apart from sports; football and volleyball in Golbanti village, what are you doing to sustain yourselves? They told me one of the things there were doing was rearing chicken. However, the project had failed because all the chicken they reared that whole year died. I asked them whether they had any veterinary knowledge on this. They said that they just did what their parents did there. They have sort of despaired because their project had collapsed. I asked myself if this Bill was in operation, and agricultural extension officers were there, they would have reached down to the village to tell them that chicken need some medication at some season in the year and they also need special care. They would have told them that there is a type of chicken that will make it in this part of the world and there is this type of chicken that will not. That this type of chicken is good for meat while this type of chicken is good for eggs. Those people are not there on the ground to advise our farmers. You have to hire a veterinary officer to tell you that. When it comes to actual agriculture, the kind of crops that we should be planting in Tana River County vary because the soils near the river are different from the soils in the interior. These people are not there to advise farmers. Madam Temporary Speaker, I agree with colleagues who say that using this Bill, the Senate should consider creating a structure where extension services are made compulsory at the grassroots level. Let this Bill say, for example, that it will be incumbent and, in fact, compulsory in every budget of every year, for the governors to provide a budget line for hiring of extension services whether on contract or short term."
}