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{
    "id": 1490598,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1490598/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 92,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "pricing cane for farmers. If you are a farmer who has good sucrose content, you should earn more than a farmer with a cane with less sucrose content. This will deal with the duality problem of leasing because of the inefficiency of sugarcane industries, and it will help with the general issue of pricing of the cane prices for farmers. Lastly, I want to laud the fact that this Bill has also been able to propose a tribunal to deal with disputes in the sugarcane industry under Clause 44. The number of disputes that we are seeing in the sugarcane industry are so many that they cannot be left to only functions of other places like courts to deal with. So, establishing this tribunal will be able to help where farmers have problems with farmers, where farmers have problems with millers and when millers have problems with millers. Currently, the issue of disputes is generally being dealt with by the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA). However, the problem with the AFA is that it does not have any teeth to bite. However, the way this tribunal is structured, it will deal with any overarching issues that might need a tribunal to bite. For instance, the issue of poaching of sugarcane is a major issue whether you are within or without the zones that have been prescribed here. A farmer can enter into a contract with one miller and due to financial issues, they end up selling their cane to a different miller who is not within their out-grower schemes. This tribunal will deal with that kind of sugarcane poaching. It will discipline millers, so that they can develop their own out-grower schemes and make sure that there is sanity for a free market economy in the sugar industry. Mr. Speaker, Sir, this is a very good Bill. I appreciate all the Members of that Committee that came up with this report. I hope that we will fast-track the passing of this Bill, so that the sugarcane farmers in the country can benefit from such a wonderful piece of legislation. I support the Report. I thank you so much."
}