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"id": 182166,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/182166/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Mureithi",
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"speaker": {
"id": 89,
"legal_name": "Erastus Kihara Mureithi",
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"content": "Thank you very much, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for catching your eye. I am very grateful. I stand here to support this Motion on the Vote of the Ministry of Agriculture. I am very proud today because the current crop of officers from the Ministry of Agriculture has really started working. I am very grateful because down there in the rural areas, you can now see the extension officers. You see them not necessarily because they wear their uniforms which they have been given, but because they have become available to the farmers and they are moving around. I feel that the Ministry of Agriculture is a key Ministry. When we talk about the Ministry of State for Defence, in actual fact, we speak about the Ministry of Agriculture. That is because unless you feed your nation--- A nation can rise against itself just because of farming. Therefore, the Ministry of Agriculture must be the central Ministry that must be considered before all the other Ministries. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it saddens my heart to see that Kenya, being a member of the Maputo Declaration, where we were supposed to set aside 10 per cent of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to agriculture, we have only been able to give the Ministry of Agriculture 4.75 per cent, which is even less than what was supposed to have been given according to the Maputo Declaration. In spite of the fact that the Ministry of Agriculture has the most highly qualified people, they do not have the capacity, equipment and resources to go around. As a result, they are unable to achieve what they have put in their Strategic Plan, which I have had an opportunity to read and which is very good as far as we are concerned. They have come up with issues like Kilimo Biashara. They have come up with programmes through show map, so that they can do roads that can lead to high potential areas. I think it is high time the Ministry of Agriculture did some bit of engineering. Take a case in my Ol Kalou Constituency. It is a high altitude area and it is very cold. Some crops like maize take 13 months to grow. The Ministry of Agriculture should now start thinking of commodities that are youth-friendly. I do not think there is any youth who will wait for maize to grow for the next 13 months, and then get Kshs1,700 as we were told by the Minister the other day. His counterparts in the milk industry wake up at six o'clock, deliver their milk to some milk processors and, within two 3060 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES October 28, 2008 weeks, they are paid their money. So, what we should now be thinking about - and I am glad that we have a team here led by the Assistant Minister and the Permanent Secretary - we must start looking at high value crops. I have heard what has happened in Ukambani. We have rivers criss-crossing the area. We should now look for high value crops. What do I mean by high value crops? You can grow very beautiful strawberries in Ukambani. It takes a very short time to grow them. Why should we import strawberries from South Africa and Israel? Why can we not grow them here ourselves in the drier areas of Ukambani and Ol Kalou? Why can we not grow sugar beans. We are importing sugar, although it was recently stopped. But we can grow sugar beans such that companies like Coca Cola and other companies can use our refined sugar. The rest of the sugar can be used for other areas. I would also like to say that there has been a major problem because the Ministries are so diverse. There are ministries of Livestock, Water and Irrigation, Agriculture and Fisheries Development. Due to diversified Ministries, we do not have a coherent policy that addresses the farmer at the farm-gate level. When those boys and girls take their milk to the dairy processors and come back, they have nothing else to do. They should have done something like processing. Right now, I am very happy because I have seen the Ministry is doing what we call appropriate technology. But when I attended the Field Day at Oljororok Farmers Training Centre, what shocked me is that the appropriate technology is based on the supply of electricity. Majority of people in this country do not have electricity. So, the appropriate technology that must be developed by the Ministry of Agriculture must be commensurate with the technology that we have. Take for instance, the sealing of crates. What I saw was an electric machine that does the polythene and fills very well. You go to the rural areas like the one we call Nyairoko where women are doing it with candles. You have air entering polythene just because they do not have some machines that can be utilised without using electricity. Take, for instance, the issue of drying wood. Right now in Nyandarua, we are throwing away a lot of cabbages. Yet, we have areas in Ukambani where we could take those cabbages. We saw that on television. We could take those cabbages there and, through the solar system, we could dry the cabbages, potatoes and crops and feed the people. What we do not have in this country is the mechanism of distribution. We have so much food that is being fed to the cows, yet, we have some food deficit areas where that food could be delivered. That way, we could alleviate the problems that we have. I cannot imagine a grandmother with five children going to look for food in Ukambani, yet, in my constituency, cabbages, carrots, potatoes are being sold by the road side. So, let the Ministry of Agriculture discuss and find out how to have distributive mechanism so that, we can remove food from the high producing areas to the drought and hunger areas. Until we do that, this country will always have seasons in which we give people food. We use Kshs10 billion to import food and yet, we have food that can be distributed to those areas. There is so much innovation that we can do in that area. Take the precipitation of Nairobi. When we have so much rain, people drown even in their own cars, yet, we can tap that water downstream and use it during the dry season. We should let rain water run into rivers that are there so that people can irrigate their farms. We should learn from countries like Israel where they have reclaimed deserts. We have a lot of precipitation here, but the will, power and ability to harness that water for human and livestock consumption is not there. We cannot have hunger in this country when we get more than average rainfall. Therefore, I would like to see a situation where in future when Ministries are being created, one Ministry has one senior Minister and other Ministers are under him, so that the senior Minister can co-ordinate the related Ministries and create packages that can be sold out to areas. I would like to say that the Ministry is trying a lot but, unfortunately, it really has a problem October 28, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3061 in terms of its resources. With 4.75 per cent of the total Budget of this nation, this country will always have a problem. Why should we import fertiliser? That money should be diverted to productive use and creating jobs for ourselves here. We take that money outside to create jobs in other countries. Here, we have nothing to do and only wait for drought, yet we have created jobs in other countries. Let us get out of the box, because there are very educated people all the way to the grassroots. I would like to say that when I was in the Ministry of Agriculture, we used to have weather forecasting. We used to call all the stakeholders and do forecasting every year in terms of rainfall, hunger, plenty or deficit. I do not know whether this is still done, so that a group in Nyandarua knows its excess food can be taken to an area with food deficit. This country must address itself to the distributive mechanism. If we do this, the practice of showing hunger on the television will no longer be there. It will be a thing of the past. If well distributed, our food is enough. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I feel very happy today and I would like to support the Ministry of Agriculture. The Government should be able to allocate more resources to this Ministry, so that we can eradicate hunger from our nation. With those few remarks, I support the Vote of the Ministry of Agriculture."
}