GET /api/v0.1/hansard/entries/360309/?format=api
HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 360309,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/360309/?format=api",
"text_counter": 45,
"type": "other",
"speaker_name": "",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "The issue of cushioning farmers in ASAL areas is quite important. First, the drought that comes periodically in this country takes livestock farmers back to the poverty cycle. Therefore, we need to come up with a mechanism of supporting not only livestock farmers, but also crop husbandry practitioners in ASAL areas. It is a fact that we will continue to experience periodic droughts. Some farmers take loans to buy livestock, while others take loans to invest in their farms. I would like to cite a particular case in the Lower Eastern region of this country, where farmers took loans from Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) and invested in their farms. However, those farmers were unable to service the loans because the rains failed. Consequently, there was a general crop failure and loss of livestock due to drought. So, you find that farmers have loans to pay despite the fact that they do not have livestock or foodstuffs. So, such farmers become beggars. We are now talking about semi-arid areas. If we are not careful, we will make semi-arid areas semi-everything areas. Sometimes, we can also be tempted to give them âsemi-helpâ, which is not enough to take them out of the poverty cycle. I am saying that we need to expand this particular motion to include mitigation measures that will ensure that we will have reservoirs and dams. That will ensure that animals are not going to die and people are not going to lack their source of income. During those dry periods, businesses also collapse. When you are talking about livestock, there are many more things that go together with this. Every business community in those areas find themselves out of business during dry periods. So, I am saying that we are touching on the lives of the farmers and we need to do it with passion. We need to do it with creativity so that we can have permanent solutions over and above the insurance. The insurance is the starting point, but it is not the end. Thank you."
}