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{
    "id": 1279523,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1279523/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 580,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Lugari, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Nabii Nabwera",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I thank Hon. Wangwe for coming up with this Bill, especially one that lapsed in the last Parliament. This Bill comes at a tough time in our history as the people who grow sugarcane because many years after 1984, this is the first time millers have officially closed down because of lack of sugarcane. This comes at a time when sugar is costing the highest ever. It is the highest in the whole Continent now at over Ksh350 per kilo, yet it is a crop we have lived knowing and growing. I see this Bill as God-sent because, in the last decade or so, sugarcane acreage has been dwindling to the extent that, as I speak to you now, we have less than 157,000 hectares of land under sugarcane. If you compare that with 323,605 hectares in 2015, this does not tell us a good story. Hon. Temporary Speaker, it is important to note that the biggest challenge today and why the mills had to close down is because we were harvesting immature cane as young as ten months. Who was the loser here? The loser was the farmer who lost between 48 to 74 per cent of what would have been his earning. Therefore, sugarcane as an economy has made our people poorer than they were years before. What are we trying to cure with this Bill? First, we are trying to make sugarcane farming a viable economic venture. Second, we are trying to provide a mechanism where Kenya will be self-sufficient in sugarcane. Having served as a joint secretary in a task force put together in 2018, I want to confirm that Kenya has the potential to be a net exporter of sugar. However, we are a net importer because we lack a legal and regulatory framework. I want to draw your attention to something very interesting. A farmer in Mumias area put five acres of land under sugarcane and developed it; and the only thing he got from the factory was fertilizer. At the time of harvesting, when the farmer went for his pay, he had nothing to take home. Instead, the factory demanded some money claiming that he had used their products more expensive than the cane he brought to the factory. Why is research in this sector necessary? The Sugar Research Institute in Kibos must be resuscitated and financed because it was tested. An individual farmer in Trans Nzoia, Hon. 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."
}