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"speaker_name": "Sen. Hargura",
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"content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I rise to second this Motion. This Motion has come at the right time to alleviate the suffering of people who occupy more than two-thirds of this country. The arid and semi-arid parts of this country cover more than two-thirds of the country while more than a quarter of the population live in those areas, but due to the climatic conditions, they practice pastoralism, that is, they keep livestock which is mainly the free range pastoralism. In recent times due to climatic change, that has become an unsustainable means of livelihood. As we know, these frequent, erratic droughts and long spells of drought have decimated their only means of livelihoods, that is, livestock. It is very common that every four or five years, we are faced with the same situation of drought. We know the kind of pictures that fill our televisions, for example, the case of hunger in Turkana, which has become something common. These people survive on livestock and the kind of climate change they experience does not support that kind of livelihood. The Government has to think of an alternative sustainable livelihood for its people. That is why I welcome this idea of irrigation and I support the Mover of the Motion because it qualifies or talks of the need of targeting those already affected areas. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we know very well that with irrigation, the productivity of these areas will be enhanced and the livelihoods of the occupants will also be enhanced. It will be the more sustainable way out of the current problems they are facing of cycles of drought. Even the normal rain-fed agriculture which we practice, is also being affected by the climate change. So, in all areas, irrigation should be the sustainable way of food production. We now have to concentrate on those who are being hit very much by this climatic changes. As the Mover has stated, due to these erratic climate situations, people have been losing their animals frequently. When it rains, it becomes insecure because those who have lost their animals have to go and raid those with animals to get other animals to start with. That is why insecurity is never out of those areas. As a way of solving that insecurity and enhancing the livelihood of these people and increasing their productivity, there is need to urgently implement this promise of a million hectares of land under irrigation. Since Independence, there was that bias against those areas because the sessional paper referred to by the Mover talked of concentrating on high productivity areas. Since it was considered that the crop agriculture of the rain-fed system is the one which is in high productivity areas, that was what was concentrated on. We know very well that the Government had started some irrigation schemes which were not per se in arid and semi- arid areas, for example, we had the six schemes established in 1966. These were Mwea, Bunyala, West Kano, Ahero, Bura and Perkerra Schemes. The national irrigation board did not cover the potential areas even with these schemes. Even without going to the arid areas, there were 54,000 hectares which had a potential for irrigation. However, these schemes cover only 4,000 hectares and there has been no addition since then. So, the Government needs to wake up and make use of its land and improve the livelihood of its people. 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."
}