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{
"id": 181868,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/181868/?format=api",
"text_counter": 179,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Samoei",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Agriculture",
"speaker": {
"id": 204,
"legal_name": "William Samoei Ruto",
"slug": "william-ruto"
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"content": "Hon. Members have raised issues to do with irrigation. We have irrigation projects in Perkerra, Mwea, the Coast and Ahero but, unfortunately, because of the level of funding of the Ministry, we are unable to attend to those irrigation projects, and we cannot produce as much of our various food items as we should, because the Ministry is under-funded. The issue of subsidy is one that hon. Members have spoken about in this House. Unless we support our farmers, make farm inputs affordable and our farmers have confidence that the Government is going to enable them to access credit that is friendly to them, we will be unable to produce enough food to feed our population. We cannot talk about any meaningful economic growth until, as a country, a meal is not a luxury for the people who are well to do. A meal must be a basic necessity for every Kenyan. It must not be a privilege the way it is now, because many Kenyans cannot afford Unga at Ksh90 per the two-kilogramme packet; many Kenyans who work in quarries, the Industrial Area or in construction sites earn Kshs150 per day and they have families. Therefore, it is the intention of my Ministry, once we have begun the process of subsidy, we intend to make, at least Unga, which is the most basic food item in Kenya, affordable to the majority of Kenyans. There is a gap between what our research stations, personnel and field stations have come up with in terms of information, new varieties of seeds of various food items and cash crops. There is a serious disconnect between what is going on in our research stations and what is going on in our farms. There is a disconnect between the research we have and the information the farmer is using at the moment. Therefore, I agree with hon. Members that we need to strengthen our agricultural extension service. We recruited in the last two years 650 persons to strengthen our extension research capacity. Unfortunately, that level of staffing is still way below what we need for us to have sufficient capacity to transfer information from research on new varieties and methodologies to our farmers. Therefore, I want to inform hon. Members that I will be bringing, shortly, a policy position paper called NALEP. In it, we are going to get the input of this House on how we are going to strengthen the capacity of our extension service, including engaging private persons, non- governmental organisations, church organisations and other players and stakeholders in our extension service that will be paid for by the Government. Research being a very critical component of agriculture and, indeed, any other sector, we have funded the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) to the tune of Kshs2.8 billion this year from Kshs2.2 billion last year. We are increasing the level of funding from our own resources to research, because we are aware that unless we work with the most recent technology and the best varieties of seed for all our cash and food crops, we will be unable to catch up with our population growth in terms of feeding them and their economic needs. We will continue to increase the level of funding for research, because we believe that in research, lies the capacity for us to reach out to the majority of our population; not only to increase farmers' earnings but to also increase our capacity to produce food, so that we can make food a basic necessity that is easily available to every Kenyan. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there were issues raised about gender and, this is a very important issue in line with the Government policy. My Ministry has developed a gender mainstreaming strategy and a manual in order to ensure that all gender issues are addressed in all programmes and levels, so that we achieve gender equality. When I say gender equality, we are going beyond the 30 per cent Government requirement that all sectors must have 30 per cent as women. We are actually striving to attain a gender equality scenario in all our programmes and areas. October 29, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3151 As I said earlier, we have various small-scale irrigation projects. I launched one in Kajiado North two months ago. We will be identifying, together with the African Development Bank (ADB) which I mentioned earlier in my statement--- We have been given Kshs3.6 billion by our development partners; part of that money is going to go to small-scale research projects under our programme that we call \"Small-Scale Horticultural Development Projects (HSDP), which is supported by the African Development Programme. This year, we have lined up 12 small-scale irrigation projects around the country. Agro-processing is a very integral part of making agriculture a business. With it comes value addition. I agree with hon. Members here who have talked about value addition with respect to our mangoes, other fruits, fresh produce, tea and coffee. I am telling hon. Members that within four months, we have already got funding to create a Kenyan brand of coffee to begin with. By February next year, we will have developed a Kenyan brand of coffee, which can then be marketed as a Kenyan brand. We need to stop the fact that all our good quality coffee is used in auctions to blend lower quality coffee from other areas, yet we do not reap any benefits. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, therefore, we have already made the first step and we shall be on this path on all our other projects including our tea and fresh produce. I want to say that on tea, we have already negotiated with the Ministry of Finance so that every year, all revenues collected from tea consumed locally, we will make that money which is between Kshs200 and Kshs300 million available to the Kenya Tea Board (KTB) to be able to create a marketing programme for our tea because our tea and coffee has sold in the international markets in its own momentum so far. If we give it that push of providing revenue and money to be able to market it, we will not have the kind of problems that we have today, where farmers are complaining of very minimal earnings because most of the money goes to brokers and middle-men. We do not have Kenyan tea or coffee being sold in Europe, Asia or America because it is lost. It is used for blending other lower quality products. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB), Members have raised concerns about the distribution of our depots especially in Coast Province. I want to say that we shall continue to expand the network at the NCPB especially now that it is playing a much more central role in distributing farm inputs and buying produce from farmers. In the Coast Province, Members raised concern that we do not have enough depots but I want to say for the record, that we have depots in Mombasa, Changamwe, Voi, Hola, Lamu, Garsen, Kilifi and in Kwale. We will continue to assess, in consultation with the District Development Committees (DDCs) and Members of Parliament, the need for additional depots. As and when it is approved, we will establish them so that farmers can have ready access to farm inputs or markets for their produce. Value addition in mango production is a very critical component especially in the Coast Province. I want to state that we are already in the process of establishing at least two mango processing plants in the Coast Province in the course of the next two years. They should be operational in the next three years and this will go on in the other parts of the country, as a means of fast-tracking the processing and marketing throughout the country, of our fruits and vegetables. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, fertiliser is a very critical component of our farm inputs. We promised the country that the Government was going to look into the issue of fertiliser because the world prices of crude oil whose by-products are used for the manufacture of fertiliser went up three times and with it, the price of fertiliser also went up three times. We promised the country that we will make fertiliser available and at subsidised prices. I want to inform the House that we have made 83,000 bags of Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) and 200,000 bags of Calcium Ammonium Nitrate (CAN) available to farmers for the short rains in the eastern part of our country. That is now available and DAP which is retailing even now at Kshs6,500 in markets 3152 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES October 29, 2008 around the country, we managed to negotiate and indeed subsidise. We are now selling it at Kshs4,000 per bag. CAN which is selling at Kshs2,500 per bag, we have negotiated for better prices and we have actually subsidised as Government and it is selling at Kshs1,700 per bag. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the same DAP which is currently selling in the North Rift at between Kshs6,500 and Kshs6,800 per bag, we have signed an agreement this week with manufacturers and we expect that fertiliser to be in the country in December and again it will be retailing at Kshs4,000 per bag. Currently, it is selling at Kshs6,500 per bag. So, the Government is living up to its pledge to ensure that we not only negotiate good prices for our farmers but Government, indeed, actually, steps in and subsidies fertilisers so that as a first step, we make food affordable to all Kenyans. I want to thank this House most profoundly for supporting the initiative of the Government to ensure that there is subsidy for our farmers as a first step towards dealing with hunger, poverty and eventually unemployment. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) and the Agricultural Development Corporation (ADC) are two critical parastatals that provide service to Kenyans especially farmers. The AFC has been in the works since 2003. We have improved its performance from a lending programme of Kshs200 million to a lending portfolio of Kshs3.2 billion in 2007. It is the intention of the Government to enhance the portfolio available to AFC so that we can access cheap credit to our farmers. Indeed, I will be coming back to this House to request it to approve additional funds so that we can actually live up to the expectation of many farmers who are very hard working people, for credit which in turn they can use to feed our nation."
}