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{
"id": 1463622,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1463622/?format=api",
"text_counter": 535,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "North Imenti, Independent",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Rahim Dawood",
"speaker": null,
"content": "farming in early 1922 when Kibos Sugar Company and Miwani Sugar companies were established by the Government. Thereafter, the Government established Chemelil Sugar Company in 1968, Mumias Sugar Company in 1973, South Nyanza Sugar Company in 1979, Muhoroni Sugar Company in 1966, Nzoia Sugar Company in 1978, Kibos Sugar Company in 2007, Trans Mara Sugar Company in 2011, Sukari Industries Limited in 2012, and others which have since come on board. The issue is not the factories which are there. It is about the farmers because they can produce sugarcane. Currently, the average is 74 tonnes per hectare but in some places, you can get up to 200 tonnes per hectare. The cost per acre for producing sugarcane is between Ksh210,000 to Ksh280,000 with profits of about Ksh70,000 to Ksh130,000. The Mover of the Motion and my colleagues have said it takes about a year or more to harvest the sugarcane. If the farmers expect Ksh70,000 or Ksh100,000 after a year of hard work, what are they left with all year round? If that money does not come in, where do they stand? They become destitutes. We need to put in place better measures on how farmers will be paid. Last year, Hon. Emmanuel Wangwe brought the Sugar Development Bill which Hon. Oundo has talked about. It was very progressive, but it has still not been put into place. Once it is implemented, I hope our sugarcane farmers will get what they deserve. We need to do away with the sugar barons who affect us. They do not want our sugarcane farmers to grow or the factories to work. When I was a member of the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning, I remember bailing out Mumias Sugar Company twice or thrice with Ksh500 million to pay off the farmers. Unfortunately, that money was not given to the farmers. This makes people to lose faith. The other day, I was reading in the press that the farmers are complaining because the price of sugarcane has gone down. Once this happens, how do you expect the farmers to re-plant the sugarcane? The same thing happened to us in the mountain region where we had coffee. Our coffee was black gold in the 1970s and 1980s. Then, the prices went down and our farmers lost. We have never recovered the coffee boom of the 1970s and 1980s. There is somebody somewhere who is messing up. If it is due to devolved agriculture, we need to put the governors on the block, so that we know what they are doing about sugarcane farming and all the other agricultural products. If we do not take hold of it, we will become a country that is dependent on sugarcane imports and yet, we can produce sugarcane. The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development should limit the sugarcane that we import and have quotas so that we can produce our sugar. At the end of the day, we will kill our sugar industry which is not only in western Kenya, but also in South Nyanza and Coast. I encourage our mountain farmers to also look at ways to grow sugarcane. If one day the western and Nyanza regions refuse to give us sugar, I do not know where we will source it from. I acknowledge what Hon. Nabulindo has done, but he needs to go further. Policy and funding are not enough. We need to see how we will encourage and give the right funds to our farmers. This not only applies to sugar, but also tea, coffee, pyrethrum, cotton, and other crops. Agriculture is the backbone of this country and our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). We need to work our way out. With those few remarks, I support Hon. Nabulindo’s Motion. However, we need to go further and pay not only our sugarcane farmers, but also all our farmers. Day-in, day-out, we hear of waivers in the sugarcane industry. We also need them in the tea and coffee industries. One region gets waivers while others do not get them. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. 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."
}