HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 182160,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/182160/?format=api",
"text_counter": 183,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Yinda",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 154,
"legal_name": "Edwin Ochieng Yinda",
"slug": "edwin-yinda"
},
"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for noticing me. I appreciate that you have given me time to support the Vote. I would like to thank the Minister for bringing the Vote, so that we can discuss it and support him. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Ministry of Agriculture is very important. But, as my colleagues have said, the budget that is allocated to the Ministry is way too low. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I think that, that budget should be much higher. As the Minister said, if he brings the requirement for additional funding, this House should give him all the support that he requires. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this country can grow almost anything. We have very fertile and beautiful land. We have natural rivers. We have lakes. We have almost everything! Yet, when you hear about food shortages, you may even think that we live somewhere in the desert! ' Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this country is not meeting its food requirements basically because of poor policies. We do not have strong policies in place and, if we have them, we are not using them. Maybe, it is high time we started looking at our strengths, weaknesses and possibilities of making sure that we provide enough food for this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Ministry of Agriculture is way too large. The Minister told us today that there are about seven sub-sectors of the Ministry. In many countries of the world--- For example, in Sri Lanka and India, the tea sub-sector is, in itself, a full ministry. That is not happening here. That is why you find that the Ministry is over-stretched. This is because it is dealing with too many issues. It is my feeling that at a later stage, we need two Ministries to deal with agriculture. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when you look at coffee, for example, Kenyan coffee used to be very famous. It used to fetch a lot of money. But I think we are to blame. Farmers are not well informed that, if prices are high today, it does not necessarily mean that they will remain high all the time. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are times when there are over-productions. More so, Kenya is not the only country that is growing coffee or tea. Therefore, it is also good to educate farmers that prices of commodities in the world will always depend on supply and demand. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I heard the Minister talking about value addition for tea and coffee. All that is very good. But we must also admit that, even if we go into value addition, we are still going to compete with other traders who are already in value addition. Value addition also, is affected by many other issues, for example, infrastructure. You may want to do 3054 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES October 28, 2008 value addition but, when you look at where you transport, for example, your tea, there are no roads. We do not have roads in this country. Three-quarters of our road network is gone! Electricity costs are too high! The availability of water is also a problem and, if you get it, it is very costly. So, before we can even talk about value addition, it is good to plan how we are going to reach there. At the moment, I think it is a tall order to talk about value addition before we deal with some of the issues that I have mentioned. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, cotton used to be a very profitable crop in many areas in this country. Nyanza, for example, used to grow high quality cotton. But, at the moment, nobody wants to grow cotton simply because of lack of a market. If there is a market, the price is not correct. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with regard to tea, for example, it is an industry that has worked. It is always very strange in this country that we go out of our way to mess up with things that are working well. We have gone out of our way to kill institutions that have worked. Once upon a time, we used to have Kenya Farmers Association (KFA). It was the link between farmers. It used to provide farm implements. But it took only one day to kill KFA because one individual, who was running it, was not in favour with the Government of the day! We started Kenya Grain Growers Co-operative Union (KGGCU). I do not know where it went! At the moment, we are talking about National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) dealing with farm implements. But even now, NCPB is not in many areas in this country. I would like to see a situation where NCPB has depots in all the constituencies in this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to see the Ministry seriously subsidising farmers with low cost fertilisers and seeds. That is because without those two, it is going to be very difficult to increase food production in this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, irrigation and dams go hand in hand, and I would like to ask the Ministry of Agriculture to look at ways of improving irrigation systems and dams in this country. I think this is an area where both the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Water and Irrigation need to work together. Dams could help in many areas in this country by increasing agricultural production in the dry or semi arid areas. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, extension officers play a major role in this country. There were times when extension officers were almost everywhere assisting farmers. At the moment, I am afraid to say that extension officers are no where to be seen. These are the people who should work very closely with the farmers to educate and help them till their land, and grow crops that would give them high yields; this can happen only if these officers work. I would like to see the Ministry get strict and ensure that all the constituencies have Agricultural Extension Officers to help the farmers. I will now turn to the price of commodities. At the moment, we have a problem with Pakistan, which is one of the largest buyers of tea from this country. The problem is simple; it is that Pakistan feels that they also grow rice which Kenya needs. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, at the moment, Pakistan has reduced their local tax on tea to 10 per cent. They have reduced their tax on Kenyan tea to 10 per cent. They are looking at the possibility of the Government of Kenya reducing tax on Pakistani rice coming to Kenya. We cannot underestimate Pakistan, because they are buying a lot of our tea and without their support, the tea prices will deinately go down. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}