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"id": 1526810,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "The Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture and Livestock Developmen",
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"content": "without subsidies. We have to be prepared to subsidise the farmers or livestock rearing people. There is no nation that can do it simply on a commercial basis. If there is no subsidised fertiliser or seeds, which is the area I would like to get into now--- Let us subsidise fertiliser even further than we can, as long as our budgetary constraints expand a little bit and the fiscal space allows us. Let us give more money to subsidies in terms of all the inputs that we have. Let us remove any taxes, thereof, for farm inputs. That way, we can compete effectively and our farmers will learn something. Let us not forget that a French cow is subsidised to the tune of USD2 per day. That is the competition we have from out there. Let us never kid ourselves that if we leave our farmers to the free market, they will survive and expand and grow. That is not going to happen. It is not just small-scale but even large-scale farmers because some crops like wheat are grown on large scale. Once, again, I urge that they try as much as possible to borrow from the institutions that we have. We are in the process of recapitalizing the AFC to give them a bit more space, so that they can lend more money to farmers than currently because they have also been squeezed. As you all know, we changed the policy to also look a lot more in terms of providing working capital as opposed to purchasing properties. We did not close it completely, but we did emphasis more on provision of working capital. Hopefully that will mitigate a little bit in that space. I thank you, Mr Temporary Speaker, Sir."
}