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{
    "id": 301985,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/301985/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 298,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Dr. Otichilo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 131,
        "legal_name": "Wilber Ottichilo Khasilwa",
        "slug": "wilber-ottichilo"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there was a time when extension services were so good and elaborate such that each farmer would be visited by an extension officer and get technical advice at the farm level. However, somehow, the policy changed during the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) where the Government through the World Bank was forced to come up with the idea of demand-driven policies where the World Bank advised the Ministry that unless farmers ask for extension workers, then the Ministry had no obligation to provide them. For that reason, from the time the extension workers were withdrawn and recruitment of such workers curtailed, this country went into a deathbed in terms of food production. Since that time, the early 1990s, we have never recovered and until and unless we ensure that we have extension workers, we are not going to be food sufficient in this country and we shall continue importing. The tragedy is that when it comes to importation, we use billions of shillings to import food but the amount we require to employ extension workers is only a small fraction of what we use when it comes to importation of food. So it is important that this country must realize that the first priority is to feed its own people. That should be the first priority! Before we talk of anything else, this country must decide that we must feed our own people and we should not, year in, year out, go out begging for food from the World Food Programme (WFP). In fact, the WFP has made its home in Kenya here because they are there to give food aid throughout. So we need the Government to put more effort and more money to agricultural extension."
}