Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 396123,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/396123/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 85,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Bunyasi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2511,
        "legal_name": "John Sakwa Bunyasi",
        "slug": "john-sakwa-bunyasi"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Deputy Speaker. I rise to contribute and support this Motion in principle. It is a great idea to seek to increase farmer incomes for our farmers, large and small because that is how we are going to grow our economy. I am concerned though with the strategy that is proposed. If the Government sets the price, it must be prepared to pack it. Otherwise, it is useless to set prices as nobody will honour them. The prices that will be set will then be subjected to market forces of supply and demand. Hon. Deputy Speaker, my colleagues have raised very many and useful suggestions, revolving mostly around value addition and I fully support that. We need to put into context the value addition strategies. What need is a value chain approach. You may have value addition proposals and strategies, but they need to be linked to a chain. It is possible within the domain of government to look at issues of value change. I think it is no longer the domain of Government to fix prices that are not able to back the supplies that come to the market at the prices that they have fixed. We know that for a fact, because that it is where we came from during the early years of Independence; we inherited from colonial regimes those guaranteed minimum prices which later became impossible to back because we could not guarantee them in the market. Hon. Deputy Speaker, dairy farmers are particularly vulnerable because of what has been mentioned. The issue of perishability of commodities, the difficulties of transportation costs and, of course, the lack of economies of scale in marketing reduce the bargaining power of small-scale farmers. I would call upon my colleague, who has raised this issue--- I think the best we can do on this matter is to seek from the Government an approach that seeks to enhance the value chain in each region. Even our colleagues from the pastoral communities have camels and goats that have got their own value. My farmers in Busia, Nambale, have their values. For example, as I speak now, most of our milk is supplied from Nandi. The reason we are supplied from Nandi is that they are able to produce it much more cheaply than we do; they can transport it to Busia and sell it. I think it would be better to look at the value chain in each of these areas; solutions will be different. Some have reached the surplus level that can The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}