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{
"id": 194816,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/194816/?format=api",
"text_counter": 158,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Mungatana",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Medical Services",
"speaker": {
"id": 185,
"legal_name": "Danson Buya Mungatana",
"slug": "danson-mungatana"
},
"content": " Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, before I was interrupted, I was making this point, that the same Kshs3 billion that has been made available to farmers, if tomorrow we have another disaster which, God forbid, is a natural one, and is not like the one that we created, what will happen to those farmers? This means that the same money will go down the drain, and it will not help these farmers. This means that we in this House need to be innovative. That is why I am talking about the concept of disaster assistance, which needs to be embraced by the AFC, the ADC and the Ministry of Agriculture as a whole. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, when the Hurricane Katrina disaster hit the American East Coast, May 7, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 879 there was a lot of destruction of property. A lot of people were messed up. Traders were bankrupted. The House of Representatives, together with the Senate, set up a fund that would assist people in business. In our particular case we can adapt our assistance programme to be for people in the farming business. Money should be set aside for such people. If you are taking a loan there should be a fund, which will come in specifically to assist disaster-hit farmers, so that when there is a natural disaster, we will not need to come back here to ask the AFC and the ADC to write off loans. There must be a fund which will be set up deliberately to assist our farmers, so that people are not sent back 30 years in time. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am even proposing that one of the rules, when this fund is set up, is to have a moratorium lasting a year for those farmers who have applied, been vetted and accepted. This kind of facility should be as long as 20 to 30 years because remember, we are assisting people who have been hit by disaster. This idea of disaster assistance being embraced will be the way forward. We do not want to bankrupt our institutions called AFC and ADC. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, right now, we have already passed the Supplementary Estimates. If we ask AFC and ADC to write off those loans, where will the Government get the money to inject into them. The spirit is good. But when those two institutions are writing off the loans, the Treasury has to put aside some money. Where are we going to factor in that money? That is why I am saying that if we pass such a Motion, it should be the last time we are doing so in this House. Parliament must stand firm and insist that new innovations be put in place. We should not be saying that in 1963, we gave free loans to farmers. No! We should come up with fresh innovations. Parliament must insist and a definite message be sent to the Minister for Agriculture that we need new innovations that will deal with the problem because it will occur again. The weather patterns in this country are very erratic. We do not know what we will do when there is drought and we are not able even to get money to support our farmers. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, this thing needs to be looked at much more deeply. I support this Motion. We should pass it, but we should send it with a message to the Minister for Agriculture and to the line corporations, that they need to come up with methods which will cushion farmers forever in this country. We want to be sure that we will have our agricultural supplies in a self- sufficient manner. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, finally, I would urge the entire House, as we debate this Motion, to consider supporting it. Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir."
}