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"id": 181870,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/181870/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Samoei",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Agriculture",
"speaker": {
"id": 204,
"legal_name": "William Samoei Ruto",
"slug": "william-ruto"
},
"content": "The ADC has also been revamped from a loss making parastatal now. Last year, it had a turnover of Kshs1.2 billion. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, our Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) form 80 per cent of our country's land mass and we need a special programme to be able to bring these areas under economic food production. Under these areas, my Ministry is implementing a programme called the Orphaned Crop Programme (OCP). What we are doing here is that we are multiplying seed for what we are calling food security crops. We are talking here of sorghum, millet, common beans and groundnuts; the items that have very high food value and do not require too much in terms of husbandry. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, this year, we have requested this House to approve Kshs250 million for this programme so that our ASAL areas can have seeds that are not only suited for the areas but are also early maturing and high yielding as a means of boosting our food security requirements. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, Njaa Marufuku Programme will still continue in these marginal areas as a means of ensuring that citizens who live in these areas have a mechanism of accessing food. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, Trans Mara Sugar Company, alongside other sugar companies, will be handled under a comprehensive programme that is currently awaiting Cabinet approval. As this House knows, the law on privatisation demands that we prepare a privatisation programme to be approved by the Cabinet so that we can get consultants to package every sugar company for purposes of privatisation. Therefore, I want to assure the House that my Ministry is alive to the expiry of safeguards on Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) by the year October 29, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3153 2012. Therefore, it is important that we undertake this programme the soonest so that by 2012, we will have complied with all the requirements for us to be able to produce sugar at prices that are competitive internationally. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we need to increase the capacity of our factories to crush sugar- cane. We need to enhance earning by ensuring that the technology we use is modern that not only crashes sugar-cane but also generates electricity on the sides and equally generates ethanol. This way, we can balance earnings and make sure that farmers, not only have increased earnings but the factories are operating in a cost-effective manner. There will be no change at the moment for the receivers in Muhoroni because we believe this will have to await the programme that is to be approved by the Cabinet so that we can package both Muhoroni and Miwani for privatisation. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, my Ministry is encouraging the use of bio-technology to address food production. The Bill on Biosafety, which will provide the legal framework for us to benefit from research and science in food production, is already before this House. Once this House approves the Biosafety Bill, we will be on our way in ensuring that we tap the tremendous resource of research that we have in this country. I want to assure this House that we have sufficient capacity, locally, to do our own research. We do not need the Monsantos of this world. We do not need all those other people. This country is not going to be hostage to any company or any country. Therefore, I want to assure the House that when the Biosafety Bill comes to the Floor of this House, as a country, we will be looking for a framework that would enable us move forward with research and science targeted at giving us variety of seeds, cash crops and food crops that are high-yielding, disease resistant, drought resistant and early maturing. That is the direction we want to go. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are feeding an ever increasing population on a fixed land mass. Therefore, if we have to feed more people from the same piece of land, we have to increase our yield. We have several ways of increasing that yield. Apart from fertiliser application, we have to look for seeds that are high yielding so that we can get more out of the same piece of land. This House will do this country a great service when they approve the Biosafety Bill. Our research men and women would then roll into action. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, with these many remarks, I beg to move."
}