{"id":161811,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/161811/?format=json","text_counter":681,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Mr. Samoei","speaker_title":"The Minister for Agriculture","speaker":{"id":204,"legal_name":"William Samoei Ruto","slug":"william-ruto"},"content":"When I arrived at the Ministry of Agriculture, I asked as my first brief, to know the food situation in the country. The information I got is as follows: One, that the Strategic Grain Reserve (SGR) was at four million bags which is a very low figure that was agreed upon almost 20 years ago. Two, I was told that because of the post-election violence, 3.5 million bags of maize were destroyed. I was also told that because of escalating farm inputs, that is, fertiliser and fuel specifically, many farmers did not manage to go to the farms. Four, in the brief that I got, I was told that about 30 per cent of land that would normally be under production was not under production because either farmers could Fe bruary 18, 2009 PARLIAMENTAR Y DEBATES"}