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{
    "id": 1379772,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1379772/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 168,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Chuka/Igambang'ombe, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Patrick Ntwiga",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I rise to support this Bill brought by my colleague Hon. Mary Emaase. This country has lost so much on cash crop production. If I look at a county like Tharaka Nithi, where I come from, all the way from Igambang'ombe to the whole of Tharaka, cotton was the leading cash crop when I was a child. Right now, very few farmers have scattered cotton in their shamba . It is not because they do not want to grow it but because the market has dwindled. If you look at statistics from 1980-1985, this country produced almost 70,000 bales of cotton annually. Right now, we have only 5,000 bales every year. I am part of the Government under President Ruto that promised people jobs. Agriculture is the greatest source of employment in this country. If we can list crops that are forgotten in this country like cotton, ndengu, and sugarcane, we will create employment and do away with unemployment. The Member is suggesting that after we enact this Bill, the Ministry should come up with regulations. This is where the problem always comes in. In my view, when it comes to regulations, we need to address the issue of production, marketing, processing and exporting. That is the biggest problem we have faced with coffee and tea farming where one person is the farmer, marketer, processor and exporter. When coming up with regulations, we need to separate laws to clearly show heads of different chains so that one person does not lead the whole chain from production to exporting. They have also said that regulations will be made to stabilise the prices. I want to suggest that once we revive this crop, we set up a revolving fund similar to the Coffee Revolving Fund to ensure that farmers get a minimum guarantee as they produce it. We are trying to revive very many crops. For instance, in the case of coffee, we have put so much effort, but farmers are complaining that the industries are depilated and the machines have broken down. I am sure it is the same thing with the cotton industry; most ginneries are broken down. They are using outdated machinery and that increases the cost of production and processing of cotton. I want to propose that once the board is formed, it is allocated funds to revive the ginneries so that we can have modern equipment to process cotton. Hon. Temporary Speaker, registering farmers is a good thing. We are doing this because we need to know the number of cotton farmers so that when you are importing fertilizer and the seeds, you have the quantities and the sizes of their land. This helps the Government in planning for farmers. It is high time we addressed what will be aggregated in the industrial aggregation centres that the counties are putting up in collaboration with the national Government. You at times look at some counties’ investment in the aggregation centres and wonder what they will finally aggregate. This is a very good Bill. If we can revive cotton and aggregate coffee, tea, and ndengu, Tharaka Nithi County will be taken care of. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I support this Bill. 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"
}