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"id": 182152,
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"speaker_name": "Mrs. Mugo",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Public Health and Sanitation",
"speaker": {
"id": 85,
"legal_name": "Beth Wambui Mugo",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I beg to second the Vote for the Ministry of Agriculture. Let me start by commending the Minister and his team for striving to make Kenya food sufficient. The biggest responsibility of any government apart from defending its citizens, is to make sure that they are food sufficient and that no citizen goes hungry. That responsibility falls squarely on the Ministry of Agriculture to grow sufficient food for this nation and ensure food security, food safety together with other Government departments. 3042 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES October 28, 2008 Mr. Deputy Temporary Speaker, Sir, I want to support highly, the request by the Minister for Agriculture that the budget for the Ministry of Agriculture should be raised much more than it is currently. We all agree that agriculture is the backbone of our economy. It is one of the most important Ministries because it relates to food, and food is health and life just like water. I would like to see a lot more attention paid to the woman farmer because she is the farmer really, in this country. Majority of the small-scale farmers are women. That is where most of the food for this country comes from. The woman tills the land, goes to the market and puts the food on the table for her family. So, she needs to be supported more and empowered. We would like to see the services of extension workers rejuvenated all over the country to ensure that farmers get the appropriate technology regarding the growing of crops, storage and marketing. We would like to see women also being given title deeds for the land so that they can also be able to raise more food for their subsistence and also for commercial purpose. We need to improve the market for the farmer. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me also touch a bit on food security and safety. Right now, there is a lot of talk about the genetically modified foods and seeds. As a nation, we require more information in this area. We do not know whether these foods are safe for the health of Kenyans. I would like to ask the Minister for Agriculture and his team to put more focus on the modified seeds. Do we have modified seeds in the market? Is it happening? Is it safe for Kenyans? Do we have a law to regulate their use? That law was brought to this House, but I do not think we passed it. If we did, it has not been implemented. First and foremost, as we ensure food security, we must also ensure food safety. We should ensure that the foods have no health risks. I also want to talk about the technology of growing food in very small pieces of land. I have visited a couple of agricultural shows and I was very impressed by the way the Ministry of Agriculture is growing food in very small pieces of land or even in drums. They grow enough food to feed a family in drums, considering the fact that most City dwellers do not have a real piece of land to plant vegetables for their families. I come from a peri-urban constituency, which has some small pieces of land where people can grow food for their families. This happens in many other areas in urban centres. I would like to encourage the Ministry of Agriculture to hold field days and exhibitions, like I have seen in Dagoretti. I was very happy with the Ministry of Agriculture. Many people came to see how this is done and I am sure they have started to grow foods for their families. We should not only do this at the show grounds, but we should also bring it to the people. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to commend the Minister for the Irrigation Programme which I am sure he is working on with the Ministry of Water and Irrigation. If we harvest rain water, this country can be food-sufficient. We have enough land to grow food. We have enough labour. We have all the young people who are loitering because they lack something to do. I hope that the Ministry of Agriculture will team up with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and develop schemes and programmes where these young people can work to produce food for this nation and also earn money for themselves. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we know small countries like Israel are food-sufficient because they use every space well. They use their human resource well. They use modern technology. We have enough experts who can guide our young people instead of them wasting so much time with nothing to do. They should be used to produce food for our consumption and also for export. Our country can become an exporter of food if we revive our agricultural sector. This will also help us to fight poverty. I believe that our strength for fighting poverty does not lie in industries. It lies in the agro-industry. That is what we have in plenty. If we develop our agriculture, both large and small-scale farming, and make sure that we do not endanger our family October 28, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3043 granaries, I believe that poverty will be a thing of the past. We must also encourage our people to value working on their farms. They should not only think about the white collar jobs. They should also look at agriculture as a resource. We have land which is a resource for our people to produce enough food and create enough jobs for everybody in this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we should also encourage the line Ministries to come together and form some taskforces to ensure there is food security and safety in our country. We have some taskforces, but I believe they are not operating the way they should. The Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation as well as the Ministry of Agriculture should have a common ground. I want to encourage the Minister for Agriculture to join me, so that we can form a strong union, where we can ensure that our people have enough food to eat, which is also safe. With those few remarks, I beg to second."
}