HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 398878,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/398878/?format=api",
"text_counter": 154,
"type": "other",
"speaker_name": "",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "million. That is about Kshs260 milliion, with about 1.3 million mango trees which can be harvested. If we look at the scenario as has been explained by the Mover of this Motion, if we just look at a single case of mangoes, most of the fruit drinks that we buy in our supermarkets, especially mango fruit juices, are all imported. If they are not imported, they are grown and tended by Kenyans and then they are taken over by multinationals for them to process, make the capital gains, sell and be the major beneficiaries of that process. If an ordinary Kenyan was given the option of being a fruit grower, they would choose something else because it is completely uneconomical since it does not bring any returns. Unless a process is started as urged and contained in this Motion, that the Government should provide incentives to investors to set up processing plants and also come up with a policy that will help in preservation of fruits, then this trend is bound to continue. Recently, the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) embarked on a research that was intended to enhance the quality of bananas that are grown in Kenya. This research went on and one of our local processors has been able to spearhead a complete turnaround in banana growing within the larger areas of Kenya. They have introduced technology whereby now bananas take a shorter period to mature, they are better, sweeter and of a higher quality. After these bananas are grown, the farmers lack a market for their produce. Unless they are sold locally to the consumers, there is no process of preserving or storing them, so that farmers can draw the benefits that should be realized. In Kiambu County, for example, almost 80 per cent of avocadoes which are consumed in this country are grown in Gatundu North. During the bumper harvest season, if you walk along the streets of Gatundu North, you can buy one for less than a shilling. It takes years of labour, putting of manure and tending for these fruit farms to come up with this produce. When the harvest is rich, most of these fruits go to waste because we do not have a preservation process and plants which can buy these fruits and process them either for later sale or package them for export. Madam Temporary Speaker, if we look at other fruits which are also grown in Kenya, for example, plums which are grown extensively in areas like Limuru and parts of Murang’a, these fruits are only harvested to be consumed at that particular moment. They end up having no value to the farmers. Madam Temporary Speaker, in a nutshell, in support of this Motion, we urgently require a policy that will make fruit farming not only a preserve of multinationals and investors who only come to Kenya to do it large-scale and turn all Kenyans into employees. For example, if you look at what happens in Naivasha, where there is some fruit farming in some large farms, most of those people who own those farms are international companies. All the local people are either labourers or just do the menial jobs. Therefore, it is the high time that we took urgent and active measures to ensure that fruit farming becomes a profitable venture for our farmers and the Kenyan society. Madam Temporary Speaker, with those remarks, I beg to second."
}