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{
    "id": 1546347,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1546347/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 116,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Bondo, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Gideon Ochanda",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. I rise to support the Motion by my good neighbour, Hon. Atandi. We are an agriculture-led economy yet we are doing very little to produce our own fertilisers. We import virtually everything that we ought not to import in the agriculture sector. We import machinery and agricultural inputs like fuel and fertilisers. There is no way we can move forward as a country if we ignore what happens in the agriculture sector. As a Government, we ought to have realised this much earlier. We have been identifying strategic areas of investment. The way we have been investing in Kenya Airways (KQ) is the same way we ought to have invested in agriculture so that we do things that are easy to do, like manufacturing fertiliser. If Uganda, Tanzania and other countries that basically rely on Kenya can produce their own fertilisers, what is wrong with us? The Government ought to have realised this much earlier. If there are no private investors willing to take up this opportunity, the Government ought to have got into this area as a strategic investment to ensure availability of cheaper inputs for the sector of the economy that drives this country. A lot of noise across the country has a correlation with food availability. The more people go without food, the more they get angry over small issues. This is something we ought to have foreseen as a country. It is a contributing factor to the many things happening around. Nobody is patient enough to wait because people are hungry. The prices of food commodities are high. People are unable to afford them. Because of the subsidies on agricultural inputs over the last two years, we have done very well in terms of production. However, subsidies are not sustainable. Currently, there is a problem with fertiliser uptake. Farmers are queuing at NCPB depots for subsidised fertilisers. We are not saying that fertilisers are not available. There are shops that have a lot of fertilisers. People are queuing and waiting for Government fertilisers because of the subsidy. Subsidy is not sustainable. We must do away with it. We should produce our own fertilisers. We must make sure that prices of farm inputs are low. This will lead to more food production and bring down food prices. That way, we will reduce quite a bit of the noise around us. We have more or less the same ecological conditions with our neighbours. When it rains in Kenya, it rains in Tanzania, Uganda and parts of Rwanda. That is the time farmers require inputs like fertilisers. That is the time when Uganda and Tanzania hold onto their fertilisers for farmers to get it while you who is dependent on imports has no fertilisers. As I support this Motion, the issue should not be taken for granted. The Government must look at it in an aggressive manner even if there are no private investors who want to get into fertiliser production. You cannot have food reserve depots when you do not make sure that there is food. 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."
}