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"id": 254069,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Chepkitony",
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"id": 13,
"legal_name": "Lucas Kipkosgei Chepkitony",
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"content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, agriculture is the main employer in this country. I was happy to hear the President mention that irrigation activities will be expanded. However, if irrigation farming was to be profitable, it is important to lower electricity tariffs. We also rely heavily on horticultural farming. Of late, horticultural farmers have been shifting to Ethiopia and other neighbouring countries. But we need to encourage more investments in this sector because it employs a substantial number of people. Moreover, the country should meet the requirements of the residue levels. At the moment, we do not have a credible organisation to assist the farmers in identifying and giving out certification for export. We need to move fast and meet the requirements of the European Union. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we also have a problem of marketing. Tea, which used to be our number one foreign exchange earner, is having problems. Coffee is no more an attractive business either due to the same marketing problem. So, we need to be careful and encourage tea production. We are still relying on the Mombasa Auction, and we are marketing tea as a raw material. I think this country should start exporting tea as a final product. We should not rely on auctioning which only benefits the traders while the growers do not get due value. This country should also encourage packing. We should package for leading tea farmers like Leafton and export directly to other markets like the USA. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, although cereals farmers have tried very hard to produce maize and wheat, the return they are getting is not fair. The cost of inputs such as fertilisers, chemicals and fuel have more than doubled in the last three years. I remember, at the beginning of 2002, the price of diesel was Kshs31 and it is now Kshs65, and yet the selling price of these crops has even April 5, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 333 come down. The Government needs to give support to this sector, otherwise we are going to be a net importer of cereals in future. Already, market for wheat has been a problem this year. The farmers cannot sell their wheat because there is over-importation. The only good thing the Government has done is to provide loans through the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC). I commend the Government for doing that and encourage it to give more loans. However, the Government should step up its support on the marketing of the cereals. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the President indicated that the country may import maize by June this year. I think the Government should first assess how the crop will behave. At the moment, we are experiencing good rains in the main cereals growing areas, and there are indications that we may have a bumper harvest. By June, we shall be in a position to assess whether we shall have any shortfall or not. So, we should not rush to import maize before we know how the crop is behaving in the field. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the AFC promised to write off loans to various farmers and this House gave approval. Up to now, no action has been taken by the Agricultural Development Corporation (ADC) to write off those loans. These loans relate to the years when farmers could not produce anything due to drought. I urge the Minister to ensure that the promise is implemented within the shortest time possible because it is causing a lot of anxiety to the farmers. Let me now mention something on the infrastructure. Although the Government is claiming that we are experiencing 5 per cent economic growth, this has not trickled down to the common man. We still have to do a lot, particularly on the infrastructure, especially roads. Most of our major roads, for example, the Nakuru-Naivasha Road, are in a pathetic state. The tarmacking of that particular road is going on, but very slowly. We need to put more emphasis on the infrastructure, especially roads, so that it becomes cheaper to transport goods from one place to another within the shortest time possible. It costs us a lot of money to maintain vehicles because of our bad roads. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to support."
}