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{
    "id": 363322,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/363322/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 272,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ng’ongo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, seed distribution has been given to the Kenya Seed Company and I think it is important that now we also think seriously about the distribution of fertilizer and give it a separate board to manage it. It does not do the country any justice to give fertilizer to farmers when the rains are over. It does not do any justice to give fertilizer to farmers when they do not need it. If we have a body that is answerable only for distribution of fertilizer, it will be very easy to oversee it and it will be very easy for that body to professionalise in distribution because we have a big problem with fertilizer distribution. A number of times we hear the Government giving assurance to the public that they have been able to source and buy fertilizer and they are going to subsidise it, but in the end you realise that some unscrupulous business people get involved in between and get this fertilizer and extort money from farmers. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, sometimes you do not understand how we can have different fertilizer prices in this country in not very distant places. You find even in the same town different prices for fertilizer. It is because we do not have a streamlined method of distributing and selling fertilizer to farmers. So, we need a body that we can hold answerable and accountable and I want to speak to the Government to understand that this country has so many regions which are agriculturally productive. It is only that sometimes our policies work against the productivity of some areas. If you come to my constituency, for example, it is very rich in agriculture but because there is no support given to farmers and sometimes there is the assumption that that region can only produce fish, you realise that a lot of produce that can be generated from that place is never achieved. This is because you can go to even the district headquarters and look for fertilizer and you cannot get it. Even if you go to look for seeds, you cannot get them. I want to tell this House that sometimes back in late 2011, I had the privilege to serve in an ad hoc committee of this House which was constituted after we realised that the prices of essential commodities was not affordable to majority of Kenyans. The committee was called “the Cost of Living Committee” and when we went to Kenya Seed Company it was very interesting to realise that a decision made by an individual and a very wrong decision to stop production of seeds almost brought this country into serious problems in terms of seed distribution. We realised that the seeds that were being given to farmers were not the correct seeds that were meant for high altitude areas. The seeds for high altitude areas were given to low altitude areas. Why was this happening? It is because someone somewhere made a decision not to produce the right seeds. These are some of the decisions that are made in this country that I think need to be looked into. It"
}