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{
    "id": 250138,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/250138/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 313,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Awori",
    "speaker_title": "The Vice-President and Minister for Home Affairs",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 290,
        "legal_name": "Moody Arthur Awori",
        "slug": "moody-awori"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, thank you for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this very important Bill. Let me go back to history. When new crops were introduced in this country, they were divided between those that were grown by wazungus and those that were grown by natives. They introduced coffee, tea and pyrethrum. Those three crops were very carefully developed. There were research stations and researchers to make sure that those crops developed better. For instance, I know that, at one stage, coffee used to take nearly six years before it could produce berries. Today, it take a very short period. The berries are bigger and of better quality. Similarly, there has been research in tea and pyrethrum. They have set up good institutions for marketing. That helped mainly the white farmers. Cotton was left for the natives. Since it was grown by natives, not much research has been done on it. Today, nearly 70 years after it was introduced, it still takes the same period time to mature. One cannot see any improvement in the lint. It is still subject to the old pests that have ruined cotton for very many years. But, in spite of all that, from the 1930s to mid-70s, cotton was like white gold in areas where it was grown. For those who came from cotton growing areas in those days, cotton farmers were considered to be fairly rich people. That was because of the cotton. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to congratulate the Mover of this Bill for bringing it here. It is turning the Board into an Authority. But what we want to do now is not just changing from one institution to another. We want to make sure that cotton becomes a true white gold. Currently, in the rural areas, agriculture has never been looked at as real business. It has remained static. Those who grow crops in rural areas are peasants. They merely exist. Cotton can revolutionalise the lives of people if we start looking at it as a serious business. It can never be a serious business if we continue with the old system of land tenure. It can never be a serious business because we still use"
}