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{
    "id": 1257695,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1257695/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 146,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Oburu",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 194,
        "legal_name": "Oburu Ngona Odinga",
        "slug": "oburu-odinga"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir, for the opportunity. I support this Bill by my Deputy Minority Leader in the Senate, Sen. Wambua. This is a cash crop and is also a very nutritious crop. Our country only thinks of food in terms of maize meal and people think that when there is no maize, then we have no food. We forget that our country is divided into counties with good rainfall and counties with little rainfall. Considering this, we should also have specialization in crops that we grow in our counties. We should not be forcing ourselves to grow maize in areas which have little rains per year. Maize requires a certain amount of rain which if it does not get, then there is crop failure. However, there are crops which are drought resistant like sorghum and millet. There are also drought resistant crops like cassava and mung beans. Mr. Speaker, Sir, these mung beans can grow and mature within 50 to 60 days. This means you can grow it two to three times in a year and that makes it handy in terms of addressing the sufficiency in food production as a cash crop. This Bill talks of the national Government’s role in research and policy. There is also the role of counties in the actual implementation in terms of extension services to the farmers and support in licensing and regulating the production of mung beans in the counties. Mr. Speaker, Sir, this crop, for instance has a big market in India because they eat a lot of ndengu. We have that huge market there but we also have a huge market within our country. We have to learn to diversify our menu, so that we do not depend on particular crops which are foreign to our land and were brought later and want to use them as the measurement for our sufficiency in food production. I am happy with this Bill because it is also encouraging marketing because we have very few cash crops. Our country is not endowed with many minerals like our neighbours. We, therefore, have to take agriculture seriously as we always state that agriculture is the backbone of our economy. We must invest heavily in agriculture. When we have a crop like this which has not been given prominence and yet it is a crop with a high value in terms of nutrition and cash, which goes into the pockets of"
}