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{
    "id": 1379748,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1379748/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 144,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Tigania West, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr) John K Mutunga",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "other sectors is peanuts. It is very little. It is almost nothing considering a budget of more than Ksh4 trillion. This industry has the greatest potential to employ Kenyans. Right now, our President moves from one country to another to negotiate bilateral labour agreements and open up avenues for Kenyans to work out there. We are looking for opportunities to engage young Kenyans. We have more than four million highly qualified graduates in this country looking for jobs. On the other hand, we have a God-given opportunity to employ millions of Kenyans in this industry. We have farms and luckily, we have a hard- working community of farmers who are ready and willing to do whatever it takes as long as we guarantee them markets for their products. Something is wrong. We need to correct ourselves. We need a national conversation on the Kenya that can help us out because the configuration of the current Kenya is not helping us out significantly. It can solve most problems and can create the needed employment. Cotton can bring in foreign exchange. We have the African Growth and Opportunities Agreement (AGOA), where the American Government has given us unlimited access of their market with our cotton products as long as they are from Kenya. Unscrupulous traders have even tried to misuse this particular opportunity but as a nation and Government, we need to focus on producing cotton in this country and we shall exploit this particular opportunity and bring in the dollar that is very much needed. So, this potential is lying out there and does not require a lot of effort. The physiology of cotton is such that it can grow in the medium to low altitudes. Medium to low altitude areas are warm. It can be grown in some of the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL). This country consists of over 80 per cent ASALs. We only have about 16 per cent of arable land where we can grow crops and expect to get yields from rain. But, on the other hand, we have a lot of land in the ASALS, marginal areas, that cotton can be grown. Our research institutions have not been left behind. They have been working on different varieties of cotton. Indeed, in the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organisation, (KARLO) cotton is an important crop. They have innovated BT Cotton that does not require a lot of chemical application to kill pests that basically affect it. It is a variety of cotton that has already been injected with a gene that makes worms unable to eat it. Basically, this particular gene works in a way that once they eat, they fall off and are unable to continue eating. Therefore, there is considerable cost reduction in terms of chemical usage. They have gone further and multiplied this variety so it is available. On the other hand, we have a huge population of very poor farmers who need assistance. This is the point on which we need to focus on as a country. I thank the President for thinking about subsidising production rather than consumption. This is the point at which we should intervene in the cotton industry and buy farmers seeds and distribute them in all the marginal areas and cushion them so that they prepare their land in time to receive the seeds for cotton production for this country. As we do that, we should also think about reviving the industry. I appreciate the fact that the processing industry is not Government-managed today; it is a lot more private. We call upon private practitioners to work closely with the Government and use very specific data, production and productivity language, such that they know if we open up a particular number of acres of land to cotton and especially a given known variety of cotton, we shall produce a lot of it and therefore, the absorption capacity will have to be matched by the production capacity. The mistake we make sometimes is that we ask farmers to produce, they do that, but leave them with the product. That is the predicament of some of the planning that was done in the past. I would like to laud the current Government and caution that we need to plan production with the consumption capacity of the country. The supply of cotton must be matched by the demand of the cotton. As we move into the future, let us engage as industry players in the confines of this particular legislation by underlining and underscoring the importance of the legislation. Let us engage sector 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"
}