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{
    "id": 1382574,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1382574/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 70,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Baringo North, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Joseph Makilap",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I rise to support this Cotton Industry Development Bill, and I want to declare from the outset that I come from a cotton growing area. My first clothes were bought with money from cotton farming in the 1980s. Hon. Temporary Speaker, what does this Bill try to raise? One, it is mobilising farmers throughout the Republic of Kenya to grow cotton in semi-arid lands that have high potential for cotton farming. Two, it develops the market industry. Three, research for cotton competitiveness in the world, and lastly, to put money in the pockets of farmers in Kenya. Let us start from where we got it wrong as a country. In the 70s and 80s, cotton was booming business. In fact, the shopping centres that are in my village today were built when farmers were growing cotton. Kerio Valley, for that matter, is one of the most reliable areas to grow cotton because we do not require fertiliser. Fertiliser in Kerio Valley is not required because the soils are fertile, thus good for cotton. We have a ginnery called Salawa that does not have the capacity because the product is not there. So, what really happened? That is the question that we ask ourselves. What happened is that we entered into business. This country allowed importation of used clothes in the name of mitumba from the West. That killed the industry. That is what killed the RIVATEX, Raymond and other companies that were supporting the cotton industry in Kenya. Hon. Temporary Speaker, when I was growing up, we used to say the highest cotton growing area is Nyanza, but there are potential areas in parts of the country. I have just given you an example of Kerio Valley. If you take cotton farming seriously and mobilise farmers in Kerio Valley, it will reduce insecurity because you will have changed the economic matrix of the people around that area by stopping them from running around with cows and making them engage in cotton farming. What do we require? We require what is called open-pollinated cotton. We also require what is called BT Cotton that has high production per acre. If we engage our farmers to grow BT Cotton and open-pollinated cotton, that will increase production of cotton for RIVATEX and other companies. In 2023, our government raised the price of raw cotton from the farm from Ksh52 per kilogramme to now Ksh72 per kilogramme. It aims to increase the acreage in cotton from 40,000 in the previous year. In 2024, we target about 103,000. This is an economic pillar. What does that mean? In the next three to four years, we want to farm cotton in about 400,000 acres. 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"
}