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{
    "id": 1382549,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1382549/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 45,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kacheliba, KUP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Titus Lotee",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this very important topic on cotton. I appreciate and congratulate Hon. Emaase for bringing up this matter. There is a reading in the Bible that says those who have more will be added and those who do not have, even the very little that they have will be taken away from them. The reason I am saying this is when I look at this Bill by Hon. Emaase, it is on the basis that Kenya is made up of 85 per cent arid and semi-arid land. God was kind enough to say that you can grow cotton in the semi-arid land. We cannot belabour the point on the importance and potential of cotton in this country. The reason I talked about the reading in the Bible is because over time, instead of cotton being promoted, it is being killed. After all, it could have come from a place where people have little and so the very little they have is taken away from them. We have land given by God, and we can transform it. One of the reasons I am speaking now is that I am looking at the potential of semi-arid areas like Kacheliba where I come from. People toil every year to plant crops that fail because of the little rain especially because of challenges of climate change. People go through losses every single year, and yet, if cotton was promoted, it being a perennial crop, we would not suffer losses every year trying to get food on our tables. We will grow cotton year in, year out to give us income. I have looked at the potential of cotton in this country. We used to export 70,000 bales of cotton, but by 2019/2020, we could hardly export 5,000 bales. Is it about the reading in the Bible that those who have little have the same taken away from them? This country should go back to its standards. Let this country think about semi-arid land. We need to have the industries that used to promote cotton in this country. We need to introduce BT cotton. I have looked through the records: One acre of BT cotton can produce 1,000 to 2,000 tonnes. One kilogramme of cotton goes at Ksh1,000. If you do the maths, you realise that one acre can make Ksh2 million in the semi- arid lands where people struggle and run away from because that is not where food comes from. If we put a lot of emphasis on this, and I want to appreciate Madam Emaase for doing this, people will go back to the lands that were given by God, the semi-arid lands, and produce cotton. That is what can turn around the economy of this country. I support that this Bill be given all the necessary approvals. Cotton is supposed to be one of the income earners of this country. Lastly, immediately we created this animal called AFA, people went to look for food, coffee and tea and forgot that cotton that comes from the semi-arid land is also an income earner. I propose and put a lot of emphasis that cotton needs to be given its own authority. It is supposed to have an authority that looks at it in terms of development, marketing and quality assurance so that farmers living in semi-arid lands do not come and squeeze in the 15 per cent of this country. Let people go back to their areas and produce for this country. Cotton in this country is a potential earner and needs to be produced and given necessary inputs. The people 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"
}