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{
"id": 1371228,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1371228/?format=api",
"text_counter": 221,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wamatinga",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13582,
"legal_name": "Wahome Wamatinga",
"slug": "wahome-wamatinga"
},
"content": "We have had various attempts to revive the agricultural sector through coffee, milk, tea, sugar and even cotton. I am proud to state that even before the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries led by Sen. (Dr.) Murango, an astute farmer, brought this Bill, we have managed to bring before this House various Bills that will ensure that we address this issue that has continued to oppress farmers for the last couple of decades. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the SAPs was an American or Western concept of trying to dominate African economies by trying to dictate mechanisms that were only meant to work in societies where communities are highly informed, educated and can regulate themselves, including the ability to work with market dynamics of coming together and achieving economies of scale. Given the background of most African countries, including Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Kenya, we lost in it because our population, most of which at that time, was highly illiterate. Most of the farmers then were small-scale farmers who were unable to generate economies of scale because they lacked the dynamics to come together. We are aware that we have the Agriculture Food Association (AFA) that was meant to address the issues. However, even with AFA, there were directorates that were not resourced enough and had only one person sitting at a desk, trying to manage a cash crop or one product. AFA is a disaster to this country. It came and compounded the problems faced by the farmers. The macadamia industry has also changed. The market today is different after the Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19), when we did not have the luxurious demand for macadamia in Western Countries. Instead of AFA moving with changing times, they denied people licenses to export in-shell macadamia. Our farmers are now cutting down the macadamia trees because the prices collapsed. We must create boards that can work with the dynamics and use the forces of the market, that is, demand and supply, to respond to the farmers' needs. I agree with Sen. Mumma that the boards must be farmer-centric and in a position to promote democracy. That is why anybody who reads the Bill will see that the county governments will play a central role, including licensing of marketers. That role is currently played by the central Government, which is manned by one desk officer. Needless to say, most of even those desk officers in the directorate have no idea of what coffee is or any other crop for that matter. The Bill that is before this House intends to cure the gaps that have been there, seal the loopholes that have seen farmers being exploited and ensure that farmers can project the kind of harvest, input and output they will have, including the prices they will get from the product at the end of the year. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, let me surprise you by stating that there are only three products in this world; milk, coffee and tea; that a farmer takes to the market without knowing when the money will come and how much will come. The farmer has to wait until he is told the price that his produce fetched from the market. The farmers do not have a say on how the money is paid."
}