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{
    "id": 1425719,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1425719/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 73,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Mithika Linturi",
    "speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture and Livestock Development",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 69,
        "legal_name": "Franklin Mithika Linturi",
        "slug": "franklin-linturi"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is important to appreciate that before the current administration took over, the prices of tea were at their lowest. In the first year, out of the interventions that the Government put in place, including the subsidized fertilizer we give to Kenya Tea Development Agency Limited (KTDA) and farmers. In the first year, we increased our production of tea. As we sit here this morning, what is going through our minds is how we increase processing lines in our tea factories. Once we called upon farmers to go back to their farms and increase the production of tea, or do anything else that is agriculture-related, the farmers heeded our call. I want to report that production of tea by the end of this year will have doubled. We will have a big problem if we do not increase the processing capacity. Contrary to the assertion by the Member of Parliament (MP), last year the bonus that we declared for Kenya in terms of foreign revenue earned from international trade rose to Kshs180 billion in 2023. We earned Kshs16 billion from local sales, meaning tea traded at Kshs196 billion. The average payments that we made was around Kshs59.2 billion, something that has never been achieved before. If you do a random check, most of the factories had the highest bonus. The promise I want to make is that this year we will even do better. The tea sector is doing well. As I had mentioned earlier, we came from China. We are getting people to partner with us to brand our Kenyan tea. Our business is just to get land within the Special Economic Zones (SEZs). The future of our tea is good. We also recognise that we have a problem with the markets. Last year, I went to Pakistan when there was no allocation of dollars to buy tea. I sat down with the Prime Minister of Pakistan to have tea enlisted as an essential commodity for us to have forex allocation to buy tea. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in the 16 months that we have been in office, so much has happened in the tea sector. In another 15 months, we will be branding our Kenyan tea. We are doing value addition for our tea, so that we can get more money for our farmers. I am duty-bound to ensure that we do our best to support our farmers. Sen. Mundigi, when you go to Embu, tell them that this year they will get better bonus payments than what they got last year. Relax and be assured we are doing what we can. We only urge you to give us support and not become populists. When we become populists, we answer to the gallery and fail to appreciate challenges that we are all going through and the effect of what certain statements might have on our unsuspecting and innocent farmers. When there are issues, let us sit down, discuss and see how to deal with them because we all have a duty to make sure that our farmers have the best. The commitment by the President of this Republic and the Government is that we must do whatever it takes to change the lives of our farmers."
}