GET /api/v0.1/hansard/entries/362079/?format=api
HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 362079,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/362079/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 275,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "interventions that the Government should be doing to ensure that this industry grows. If you look at the challenge that small-scale fishermen in this country face, and I am happy that in the last Government, we had the Economic Stimulus Programme where aquaculture and the development of fish ponds became very booming businesses, it is how to ensure that the fish, which is mature in those ponds, is well harvested. This is important for sustainability. When you use the right fishing gear, you will ensure that your fish grows sustainably. If you use the wrong fishing gear, it means that you are going even to capture immature fish. You are going to capture the degas and omenas and sometimes, you can capture those small fish in huge quantities when they would have been given more time to mature and generate more revenue to the country. So, if you look at the kind of interventions which the Government has done, it is really minimal. There is very little investment in modern fishing gear. Our fishermen hardly use trawlers and they do not have the cold storage facilities. You will hardly get any form of strong co-operative movement being supported by the Government in the fishing industry. This has given foreigners an advantage particularly in exploiting the fish resource in the Indian Ocean. If you go to the northern parts of our coastline, particularly Kiunga, Malindi and Lamu, you will find that in the deep seas, where our fishermen have very rudimentary boats, much of our resource is being exploited by Koreans. It is being exploited by the people from the Indian Peninsula and the Asian Continent who can afford more sophisticated and modern fishing equipment. That is not helping our economy in any way. Beyond that, this is an industry that has also been totally exploited by middle men. You realize that other than the fishermen who get the product from the waters, the actual benefit ends up in the hands of middle men, who buy this fish at very low prices and they transport them to long distances to other factories where they sell them and add value. Some of them export them at very exorbitant prices. Therefore, the issue of value addition to this industry is also critical in order to ensure that it is well developed. We have been talking about how to grow this economy. We have talked about how to reduce the public wage bill. We have talked about how to ensure that we offer jobs to our youths. We have talked about how to become a global hub for trade and logistics. We have talked about how to be a self-sustaining country as far as food security is concerned. There can never be a better opportunity for this Government to take advantage of unexploited sectors in this country which have huge potential for economic growth than this. The fish industry is one of those sectors that are under-utilized, unexploited, have great potential and can be taken to the next level. I fear when I look at the current structure of the Government where the agricultural sector has again been reconsolidated. We have agriculture, fisheries and livestock, but these have been stand alone Ministries in the past. There is a great danger that what is considered less critical like fishing or livestock may actually be put to the periphery unless we have strong legislative framework that can support such peripheral sectors, but which are considered to have huge economic benefits. So, just like we have looked at other sectors and given them support, for instance, the coffee and tea sectors and in the recent past, I know that cashew nut and coconut sectors are being given a lot of support by the Government, the fishing sector is the next level of great Government support and intervention that we require. What can be done to"
}