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{
    "id": 1569720,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1569720/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 188,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Eldas, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Adan Keynan",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "security as the means all people, at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for active and healthy life. Is that what we have been doing? Is that what we do? It is not. I must congratulate the author of the Bill, its supporters and colleagues in the Senate who have attempted to look at it. We ought to have had it a long time ago. Some of the components the Bill attempt to help farmers in accessing knowledge, in getting information, and in getting serious technological transfers because farming has been modernised. It is not like the old days where farming methods did not add a lot of value to the wellbeing of the ordinary farmer. This Bill also attempts to enhance and modernise some of our agricultural practices. It attempts to bring about issues that can enhance economic productivity. It also provides an avenue for training. It also attempts to support market linkages that will bring about sustainability. When we were in school, we used to get access to the 4-K Clubs. We were encouraged to join agricultural marketing organisations. Today, if you ask the ordinary farmer about farming, you will realise that the kind of things they do and what they are expected to do are completely different. In this country, the definition of agriculture was based on coffee, tea, pyrethrum and other crops found in central Kenya. If you look at the face of this country, agriculture encompasses livestock, fishing and other marine activities. We need to get out of that cage which is part of the colonial mentality. Immediately we got our Independence, Sessional Paper No.10 of 1965 defined agriculture as what was practised in the high-potential areas of the larger Mount Kenya region. What was grown in the region? It was coffee, tea and pyrethrum. Period. Mandarins in the Treasury and those in the Ministry of Economic Planning stopped thinking about the face of this country. In their mind, fish was a commodity for the Luo subsistence farmer. Livestock was predominantly associated with the pastoralist communities in parts of northern Kenya and Rift Valley. That definition must change. I am very happy with this Bill because it brings out definitional clarity. I thank Hon. (Dr) Mutunga and his team for drafting it. We also need to diversify our economy. If you ever get an opportunity to go to Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan or Egypt, please visit some of their farms. These countries are desserts. Saudi Arabia is the largest wheat-producing country in the world, competing with Australia and the United States of America. If you go to Israel, you will be amazed by the kind of dairy farming there. If you go to Jordan on the other side, the country deliberately invested in technological transfer and empowerment of the ordinary farmer. That is not what we do today. During the colonial time, and I am glad my sister from Narok and Hon. Adan Haji are here, we used to have the Livestock Marketing Division (LMD), Livestock Holding Grounds (LHG)), Livestock Migratory Roots (LMR) and a vibrant and functional Kenya Meat Commission (KMC)."
}