HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 250772,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/250772/?format=api",
"text_counter": 304,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr. Ojiambo",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 362,
"legal_name": "Julia Auma Ojiambo",
"slug": "julia-ojiambo"
},
"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to move that the Cotton (Amendment) Bill be now read a Second Time. I am glad the House has adopted the Report of the Constituencies Fund Committee. This will give hon. Members time to debate the Cotton (Amendment) Bill. This Bill aims to revive the cotton industry, but more importantly, it has a lot to contribute to the Poverty Reduction Strategy of the NARC Government. I hope that what we have proposed will interest the Government and it will be taken seriously. It is in the interest of Kenyans to improve their economic status. Prior to 1991, and a lot of this came to the Floor when we were discussing the Motion that enabled us to prepare this Cotton (Amendment) Bill, the cotton industry was very vibrant and contributed a lot to the economy of this nation. In 1991, the Cotton Board of Kenya, that had controlled the cotton industry in terms of regulation, licensing, control of ginneries, pricing and the quality control of plant seed, collapsed. The Government decided to liberalise the cotton industry. This literally amounted to the withdrawal of services from the cotton growers. At that stage, the cotton ginneries that had been maintained by the cotton growers were privatised. Some of them were privatised without the knowledge of the cotton growers. The cotton growers had maintained the services of the cotton industry under the cotton co-operative movement. The co-operative movement also collapsed. The Cotton Board of Kenya was literally left without a role to play because private investors came in and took over the cotton ginneries. The liberalisation, therefore, created an institutional vacuum. In the absence of the functions of the Cotton Board of Kenya and its services of regulating, monitoring and the development of the cotton industry, the industry collapsed. What is amazing is that even up to today, this country still maintains the Cotton Board of Kenya and the Cotton Act, Cap.335, as the only instrument that the cotton farmers are depending on. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the cotton industry suffered a lot in 1991 when the sector was liberalised. As I have said, the industry collapsed and, therefore, the yields dropped from 120,000 bales to 5,000 bales. At that time, there was a potential of farmers improving their yields to 300,000 bales. The industry literally collapsed and the farmers could not any more contain the production and the monitoring of the plant seed. Some of the seeds that remained were contaminated and of poor quality that could not improve the industry. The cotton lint was of poor quality because it was grown from poor seed. There was total lack of research and extension services because the Cotton Board of Kenya collapsed. Therefore, there were no cotton extension services from any of the officers. The farmers lacked credit facilities to enable them to buy inputs. Therefore, even the stakeholders' associations collapsed. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the industry has suffered a lot of under-cultivation of land because the farmers could no longer maintain the service and, therefore, the strength to till the land. In this country, we have over 400,000 hectares that was under cotton cultivation. This went to waste. We also have a potential of raising further 600,000 hectares from the land that is held by the local authorities and other authorities such as the Tana and Athi River Development Authority (TARDA) that could be put under cotton production. This could no longer be utilised because the cotton industry had completely collapsed. It was due to this that consideration was given by the stakeholders in the cotton industry to support the amendment of the Cotton Act, Cap.335."
}