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{
    "id": 396106,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/396106/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 68,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Opiyo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1174,
        "legal_name": "Jared Odhiambo Opiyo",
        "slug": "jared-odhiambo-opiyo"
    },
    "content": "and sometimes farmers are forced to sell their milk at such low prices such as Kshs27 per litre just because of the fear that their product will perish if they insisted on better prices. As country, we must encourage farmers to do their farming and also exist in co- operative societies. It will be the business of those co-operatives to bargain for the better prices of milk that we envisage. We know that the cost of feeds and medication for livestock is high. If we continue exposing our farmers to extremely low milk prices, the farmers will get discouraged and that will lower milk production. We will then start thinking of importing milk. So, the Government must take conscious measures to ensure that we encourage the farmers by helping them bargain for better prices so that they feel that dairy farming is actually an undertaking that is worthwhile. Hon. Deputy Speaker, I think that the best way to go, as my colleague hon. Eng. Gumbo had tried to illustrate, would be to start thinking of adding value to our milk before we sell it. That way the farmers will get the maximum out of it. We should actually shift from simply producing and selling raw milk and expect the highest amount of money from it. The sub-sector of grains has got an intervention by way of the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) where the Government buys from farmers at an agreeable price - a price that is almost acceptable. However, when you come to the dairy sector, the farmers are left to produce and they are left at the mercy of private milk processors who essentially would want to make the most out of the poor farmers. I wish we had an intervention such as that of the NCPB where the Government has an agency that buys milk from farmers at an acceptable price and then sells to whichever milk processors. This way, the farmers will be cushioned from exploitative tendencies of the private milk processors. If we are going to have the milk processing plants at the village level in all our villages where milk is produced, then the farmers will feel much safer and they will be excited to produce more milk. We will not be concerned that they could be discouraged and therefore stop producing milk. This country, through its leadership and of course all of us must start making conscious attempts to cushion farmers because our farmers will lose interest in dairy farming and milk production. This will be very shameful because we boast as an agricultural country. Sooner or later farmers will stop producing milk and they will venture into other areas that may promise better returns. With those many remarks, I wish to support this Motion."
}