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{
    "id": 433885,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/433885/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 175,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Nyenze",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1987,
        "legal_name": "Francis Mwanzia Nyenze (Deceased)",
        "slug": "francis-mwanzia-nyenze"
    },
    "content": "Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I just want to say that the agriculture sector is very important and if we invest more money in it, this country’s economy will grow faster. As hon. Ottichilo has said, our soils have deteriorated to a point where they cannot produce good food because of use of bad fertilizers. There are conmen who import and sell substandard fertilizers and farmers end up applying too much fertilizer to the wrong soils and this Bill seeks to correct that anomaly. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, currently, agriculture directly represents 26 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and another 25 per cent indirectly through linkages with manufacturing distribution and service industries. This is a big chunk of GDP. It accounts for 65 per cent of the national exports and provides 70 per cent of informal and approximately 18 per cent of formal employment. That is a very high figure. Agriculture employs more people than any other industry. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for those countries that have had their economy grow faster than ours, they invested in agriculture. They have invested in value addition to crops. They are produced and improved from there and today, they are in the middle income category. Kenya can be the same as those countries which have improved their agriculture sector. I do not want to over-emphasize the need for food security. It is an issue of concern to Kenya and because of climate change, there is less rainfall and the population is growing fast. We have to change and improve our agriculture. Our main ingredient that is used in agricultural production is fertilizer. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, this Bill has come at the right time when farmers are crying everywhere; be it maize, sugar-cane, tea, coffee farmers, et cetera . Every farmer, even those who rear livestock, are crying of bad prices, expensive inputs, especially fertilizer and they cannot make their ends meet. Their children cannot go to good schools. Most of them cannot afford to put a good meal on the table for their families. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, we have to make sure, as Parliament, that we support this Bill so that farmers can be relieved. We need to budget more money towards agriculture because that is what would make us grow at double digit. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the overall economic growth will not be driven by infrastructure development and tourism, but farming. Farming is the main thing that will drive this economy. The billions which have been put in other sectors, if they were directly put to the farmers, you would have seen change and this economy would have grown very fast. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I want to say that fertilizer, amongst other agricultural inputs, is key to agricultural transformation. There has to be increased agricultural productivity so that we can produce more food and we drive away poverty. For us to develop agriculture at the rate where we want to drive our economy to, we have to look at that key which is fertilizer and other inputs to make sure that they are affordable. We should ask ourselves why they are not affordable. First, it is because of unscrupulous traders. There is a lot of money in fertilizer imports and that is where people are making a kill. Let us drive out middlemen and let the farmers control the distribution and the buying of fertilizers because they are the ones who are using it. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, there has been talk about setting up a fertilizer plant. I understand that one company is setting a factory in another country. What of this 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."
}