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{
    "id": 332530,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/332530/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 429,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Prof. Kaloki",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 62,
        "legal_name": "Philip Kyalo Kaloki",
        "slug": "philip-kaloki"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I rise to support this very important Bill on Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food Security. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am particularly impressed by this Bill because it is going to provide some solutions to semi-arid areas and generally much needed food security to these particular areas. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, as I welcome this particular Bill, there are some areas that we need to work on to make sure that we deal with semi-arid areas challenges facing many counties. I was able to see that devolved systems of government are included here but I do not see specific provisions on how to deal with provision and construction of dams, and making sure that we can have irrigation programmes, although this particular department falls under another Ministry. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, irrigation deals squarely with production of food. So, we should move in that particular direction. This particular aspect should fall under the Ministry of Agriculture, because irrigation in essence is for providing food security, where there is no rain; irrigation programmes will help. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in this particular Bill, there are no specific provisions showing how counties and semi-arid areas in areas such Kitui, Machakos and Makueni counties--- These are counties where you can do large scale farming, so as not to rely on the Government to feed people year in, year out. We need food security to achieve this. In these areas, the climate is good but what we lack is the goodwill from the Government to deal with food security. The Ministry of State for Special Programmes spends billions of shillings each year to deal with lack of food situation in those areas. This Bill talks about better management and consolidation of agencies so as to move away from colonial programmes that were implemented in the past. One thing that we must appreciate from the colonial Government of the past is that it provided food security. At the moment, if you look at Kibwezi, we have many areas where the colonial Government implemented programmes that exist even today. People still depend on those programmes. As we implement this particular Bill, I would also like to urge the Ministry to be able to look at ways to deal with semi-arid areas such as Kitui County and the northern part of the country. We should make sure that these areas produce food and have some marketing programmes so that you can even have some factories dealing in horticulture so that we"
}