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{
    "id": 1475508,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1475508/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 289,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nandi County, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Cynthia Muge",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this very important Bill that is on the Floor of this House today. I must state that Nandi County has been a coffee growing area for a long time. If you ever happen to visit my home, I have one coffee tree that is used as a flower, but produces very good quality coffee when the time for harvesting comes. It is something that had ceased existing in some parts of Nandi that used to do very well in coffee because of the issues of unpredictability of prices and lack of structures in the co-operatives and the selling of the coffee previously. But being the Woman Representative for Nandi County, and being keen on development and empowerment of women, we have a vibrant programme called Mama naKahawa where we distribute coffee seedlings. In the first phase, we distributed 100,000 coffee seedlings to women in Nandi County to plant them in small scale. We are very ambitious this year and we are already preparing 0.5 million coffee seedlings to be distributed for the planting season of May. That brings me to the point that this particular Bill has come at a very good time. It is a very important Bill for coffee farmers. Coffee is called the black gold because, if you look at the earnings from coffee, you cannot compare to earnings from other crops. They are fairly okay, but the coffee earnings are very good. This Bill has come at the right time to enable us to sort out the teething problems that we have in the coffee sector, and ensure that coffee farmers in this country earn as much money as the coffee fetches out there. The provisions in this Bill and, of course, with a few amendments, will help us to go ahead and strike a balance between the price of the cherry that the farmer gives to the co- operative societies during collection and the cost of the coffee in the cup. It is surprising that a single spoon of coffee costs us more than Ksh400 in the cafes, but the farmer who actually tills the land, procures the seedlings, tends to the crop, goes ahead and picks the cherry, and takes care of the cherry all the way to processing, earns 1 per cent of what one spoon of coffee costs. When you look at this Bill and the provisions herein, it is clear that we will bridge the gap between the coffee cherry and the coffee in our cups. I am very happy about the direct settlement schemes that are properly anchored in this Bill. We have had a problem with our 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."
}