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"id": 181843,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Nyambati",
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"legal_name": "Walter Enock Osebe Nyambati",
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"content": "Thank you very much, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to support this Ministry. The Ministry of Agriculture is extremely important. I think it is up to this House to ensure that we support this Ministry in every way possible, so that we can have food security in this country. I want to take this opportunity to commend the Minister for Agriculture for eloquently presenting the proposals from this Ministry. I also want to commend him for ensuring that he has gone all over the country to see how the agricultural sector is doing. Having said that, it is about time that this country became sufficient in the production of 3136 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES October 29, 2008 food for its people. It is a shame that a country as rich as ours in terms of agricultural products, can import food. That is because we are not taking the Ministry seriously. We are not funding the Ministry the right way. We should fund this Ministry so that it is able to produce enough food for our people. When we look at countries like Egypt and Israel which do not have much rainfall and are not blessed with good climate like ours, and learn that they are able to produce enough food while we cannot, it is a big shame. So, I think it is up to this House to ensure that there is proper funding for the Ministry of Agriculture. I want to challenge the Minister for Agriculture to come forward and ask this House to fund the Ministry properly, so that we can be able to produce enough food for this country. We would like to have a situation where we are able to export food as opposed to importing food. We can do it. I want to thank the Ministry because it has handled the food shortage crisis in this country very well. I want to thank the National Cereals and Produce Board for ensuring that there is food in this country under very difficult circumstances. I think the Managing Director of National Cereals and Produce Board has done a wonderful job, together with the Ministry, to ensure that, at least, Kenyans are not dying of hunger. I request the Government to ensure that people do not die in areas where there is a shortage of food. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to request the Ministry to ensure that we have extension officers. I do not know what happened. Sometime ago, we used to have many extension officers to help farmers produce good food. I do not know whether it is because we are under-funding the Ministry or not. But we must ensure that we have extension officers that can help farmers to produce food. We have a very energetic and young Minister for Agriculture and I want to thank him for the good work that he is doing. We must support him as a House to produce food. If the other Ministers could follow the example of the Minister for Agriculture, I think this country would go a long way. He is even in the House to listen to what we are saying. But having said that, I want to plead with the Minister to ensure that Kisii farmers, especially tea farmers from Kisii, also enjoy good returns as those in other parts of the country. Tea farmers from Kisii earn less than what other farmers in the country earn. I want to ask him to look into that issue and solve the problem. If it is a matter of crop husbandry, then we should do it so that the farmers can benefit. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also request the Ministry to give subsidies to farmers. The Ministry of Agriculture cannot give subsidies to farmers unless we fund it adequately. The Ministry of Agriculture is very important. You can walk naked if you are not hungry. You can wear a suit but, if you have no food, you cannot walk anywhere. Food is very important. A hungry person is a desperate person. So, we must feed our people. The only way we can feed our people is to ensure that our farmers are assisted to produce enough food for this country. Some years ago, Kisii used to produce pyrethrum. I think we were the leading producer of pyrethrum in the world. But because farmers could not get paid, they uprooted all the pyrethrum crop. The same happened with agriculture. We do not want that to happen in terms of tea. So, we must ensure that our farmers are assisted and paid handsomely. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to request the Minister to put up a banana industry in Kisii, because we produce a lot of bananas which just rot because there is no market. The Minister should look into that, so that we have one banana factory in Kisii; that will go a long way in encouraging our farmers to produce more food in the country. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, having said that, I would like to say that I support this Ministry; I also want to request the Government to ensure that there is proper funding in the Ministry of Agriculture. October 29, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3137"
}