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{
    "id": 401515,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/401515/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 230,
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": ". So, every time you see a boy called tsikhungu, you know that the boy was born when the army worms were there. In fact, there are many songs that are sung in my vernacular which complain about disasters caused by tsikhungu . The ordinary people see it necessary to name children so as to remember that disaster. It should not fail to occur to the Government that this matter is so outstanding. Granted it is being experienced by small people, but it is so outstanding that it calls upon the Government to actually write off the loans. Therefore, I support the Mover when she says that those people who defaulted, the heavy penalties that are imposed on them are not fair. If a famer is able to prove that it was because of one or more of these disasters that they failed to break even, then they should be allowed to enjoy a write-off. Madam Temporary Speaker, I want to share with my colleagues the experience that I had when I visited dairy farmers in Canada. In Canada, one farmer keeps 175 head of cattle using only three employees. They do not use anything out of this world. They have discovered that when you leave an animal to walk in the fields, you disturb it and productivity goes down. When the sun heats it, the productivity goes down. So, the so-called zero grazing in this country is actually the farming that is in vogue for higher productivity in the first world countries. I therefore would like the Government – granted that they have given agriculture as a devolved function to the county governments – to be interested so that we support county governments especially in those high milk producing areas so that they are able to practice modern farming where many animals can be looked after by fewer personnel so that the cost of management of the farm is cut down. This cannot just take place because we have said it in the Senate. We have to start an attitude in this country where since we grew up thinking that the real thing to get in life is land and we know of many cases where people kill each other in the rural areas because of land---. We have to create a paradigm shift so that that mindset in our children that for them to be seen to be people, they should own land, should go away. I can assure you if you ask Sen. Kajwang, we make much more money from our professions than you would make from 100 acres of land where you have planted maize. But you will find that even us, the doctors, lawyers, engineers and other professionals, keep on impacting into our children that it is land, land and land. Time has come for professionals to free the land which they hold in fertile areas to professional farmers, so that you concentrate on your profession, where you earn your livelihood. This will make it possible for the farm holding across the county to be bigger. When farm holding is bigger, it means that the majority of the people of the Republic will live in urban centres. Madam Temporary Speaker, I want to refer Members to a book that I was reading last week on how you can end poverty in our lifetime. This book illustrates that the countries that have moved from middle economy to first world economy, like Brazil, have had to fight, so that the majority of their people have moved from the rural areas to urban areas. The moment you do that, then you will free all that land that the majority of The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate"
}