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{
    "id": 305316,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/305316/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 294,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Dr. Mwiria",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Higher Education, Science and Technology",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 190,
        "legal_name": "Valerian Kilemi Mwiria",
        "slug": "kilemi-mwiria"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to support this important Bill and to congratulate Mr. Mungatana for bringing it up. First, I would like to see this as issue about reviving and supporting agriculture across the country, because coconut is part of that. Therefore, as we look at issues related to promotion and legalizing by making law with regard to coconut farming, we also need to look at other crops that have been forgotten, and that will need similar support, so that communities and regions benefit from a potential that may have been neglected for a long time. I would like to agree with Mr. Mungatana and others who have spoken, including the Seconder that coconut has almost been forgotten, yet we know that in the 1960s it was a very high value crop. Those who exploited it then and made their money did not remember to make the point very strongly to the Government that there was needed much more involvement by the Government, so that whatever was being achieved could have been expanded to more people at the Coast region and elsewhere in Kenya. In this regard, we need to identify other crops that are sometimes considered orphaned. These include traditional foods like sorghum and millet and the more modern ones like macadamia nuts, fruits and other horticultural products that have not received the support that they could have received to the point that farmers are almost giving up. A good example are mangoes that are rotting in our farms, because farmers do not get the support for value addition to do processing in factories and support related to marketing that would make farmers to be interested in continuing to support and be part of that agriculture. There are also other crops like potatoes grown in Meru and elsewhere in the country. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, it is also a reminder that there is indigenous wealth, not just in export but even in terms of the value that these products, if consumed locally as improved varieties, can bring. People will have knowledge of how much more they can do in terms of both the health of individuals in those regions, because of the nutrients that are unique to some areas worldwide. This also applies to everywhere in this country and the world in terms of what we can gather to promote the health of individuals; there are certain benefits that research has not shown us because not much has been invested by the Government to explain what is good about certain products that could benefit people in addition to other products available to them for consumption. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, there is also the issue of value addition. When I went to China, I found that they have very good coconut juice. It is something that we do not think about here. It is both very tasty, nutritious and extremely valuable."
}