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{
    "id": 319140,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/319140/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 375,
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    "content": "the farmer and yet the farmer loses 15 per cent of his income to this organisation. They attempted to buy tractors ostensibly to transport cane at cheaper rates for the farmers. They vandalized all those tractors regardless of where they are. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to urge the Minister at Committee Stage - and we shall support her - to delete the existence of outgrowers organisation from this industry because it is a middle consumption group that only fleeces the farmer, adds no value to the cane farming and the factory. I also want to urge the Minister to clear the grey areas on this issue of zoning and contracting. I do know that some farmers, if not most of them take inputs from the sugar millers to develop cane. A very small percentage of crooked farmers will take those inputs and eventually, dishonestly, sell their crop to another miller, therefore, dispossessing the miller that funded them. But this is a negligible minority. I would want to see a situation where we have clear contractual obligations defined in the Act, indicating what the factory should do for the farmer and the farmer’s duty and obligation to the mill. This will ensure that the farmers who opt out of this arrangement and plant their cane as independent growers should have the liberty to sell their crop to any mill. If I have ploughed, bought seed, planted, done the weeding, put in the fertilizer I am not obligated to sell my crop to the nearest factory simply because it is close to me when it has not helped me to grow the crop. So, I think either in the Act or in the rules that will be promulgated - and I know that all such rules to get legal credence must come to this Floor - must clearly define the relationship between the farmer and the mill, both contracted farmers and independent farmers. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in reference to the outgrowers, I would urge the Minister to look at Clause 9 of the Bill and delete altogether any reference to outgrowers institutions. This country has been growing cane for a very long time. The oldest sugar mill, Miwani Sugar Company, was built at the turn of the last century. We have an institution called “Kenya Sugar Research Foundation”. I am not quite sure that the continuous research that we expect from the Kenya Sugar Research Foundation has been sufficient or beneficial to the farmer. If you look at the research going on in the maize sector, you see constantly there is a new breed or a better breed. We even have some breeds that are resistant to weevils and other pests. If you go to countries like Brazil and Mauritius, they now have cane that matures at 12 or 13 months. I do not see why in Kenya we should still be stuck to varieties that mature at 22 or 24 months, therefore, denying the farmer the opportunity to earn from his or her crop every year. The cane industry is not like the tea sector where a farmer continuously earns some bits and pieces of income every month and eventually gets a bonus for the crop. For the cane farmer, if your cane goes up in smoke or some malicious neighbour grazes his cattle on your cane, or something tragic happens, the farmer is left with nothing. I would want to see a situation where the law has some degree of insurance for the farmer. This should be insurance that actually can be underwritten from the Sugar Development Levy that lies in billions so that the farmer is covered from the vagaries of weather, malice of neighbours and many other things that disposes the farmer so that we make this farming of cane attractive and helpful to the farmer. I would want to propose that when privatisation eventually arrives - I know it is not in the competence of the Ministry of Agriculture to chaperon privatisation - but that at the time it comes a lot of factors need to be taken into account."
}