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"id": 1569693,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1569693/?format=api",
"text_counter": 161,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Tetu, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Geoffrey Wandeto",
"speaker": null,
"content": "On behalf of Hon. Kaguchia and Hon. Wainaina who are not here, I warmly welcome them to Parliament. I ask them to work hard and hopefully, a few of them will come to this House one day. That said, Hon. Temporary Speaker, allow me to lend my voice in support of the Agriculture and Livestock Extension Services Bill (Senate Bill No.12 of 2022). Growing up in rural Kenya in the 1980s and 1990s, I think we all witnessed the transformative power of agriculture. Most of us were educated by proceeds of coffee, tea and other crops and that is when there was money in farming. One of the catalysts then, was the presence of these agricultural extension officers but over the years, we have seen a very systematic collapse of these services and the final nail on the coffin came in 2012, I believe, when we finally devolved agriculture. As I have said in this House before, it is sad that a lot of good things that were devolved died on the floor of the counties. Agriculture despite being about 33 per cent of our GDP, contributes nearly 70 per cent in terms of employment and support for rural livelihoods. Yesterday, I came across a very interesting chat which was comparing crop production between Kenya and Tanzania, and the comparison years were 1961 and 2023. You realise that on maize, I think in 1961, we were producing an upward of a million metric tonnes of maize and Tanzania was only doing about 300,000. Today, we have about 3 million while Tanzania is at about 6 million and that is why we have become a net importer of Tanzanian maize. The same goes to rice, beans and very many other crops and as much as we may have ‘beef’ currently with Tanzania, we will have to admit that when they tell us that sarcastically in Kiswahili jirani hatachakula hana (our neighbours lack food) they really mean it because over time, we have let the agriculture sector down. Hon. Temporary Speaker, as land sizes shrink, as the vagaries of climate change affect us and as we deal with all the challenges that we have, productivity continues to go down. We have to make interventions to ensure that our farmers can produce more on the small pieces of land that they have. This calls for improved husbandry methods, better seeds, more effective use of pesticides and fertilisers, and disease control. Agricultural extension officers played this role. Since this function was taken to the counties, we have faced challenges. I have a sister who is an Agricultural Extension Officer and she gives me horrendous stories. Sometimes, she spends a month or two in the office without going to the field because her county cannot provide transport. There are also no tools to help farmers, even though she works in an agriculturally rich county. We must start introspecting on what we need to do about this problem. I am happy because the Bill that is before us seeks to revitalise this service. It is very timely. However, I am not a strong believer that every problem in this country will be solved by the Government. In fact, Government is fairly poor at solving problems. It is good at policy and creating an enabling environment. However, this problem was handed over to the counties. They were given staff, but due to challenges, especially corruption, we are not seeing results. I have said in this House that the only thing we have 100 per cent successfully devolved is corruption. Because of these problems, we must start introspecting creating a framework for professional services. Today, in rural areas, even when there is no medicine in the local clinic, one can still go to a private doctor. So, how do we ensure that farmers who can afford it have access to commercialised extension services? If you look at big horticultural companies, especially those operating in parts of the Rift Valley and Mount Kenya, they run their own extension services. They have officers who advise farmers on how to improve productivity. How can we ensure we come up with a model where we can certify, register and regulate commercial extension officers? They can even be community-based, just like the Community Health Promoters (CHPs). They can be small, professional and community-based officers who can help do crop, milk or product share with the farmers. For instance, if they help a farmer improve productivity 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."
}