Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 508196,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/508196/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 303,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Therefore, the question is: What is it that we are doing wrong in Kenya? There is something we are doing wrong. This Bill attempts to address some of these things which are wrong. One of them is the issue of seed. If you look at all the staple crops, be it maize, wheat or rice, the Government has a way of providing certified seeds to farmers. With the potatoes, there are only two or three serious seed farmers at the moment. The use of certified seed is less than two per cent as per 2012 statistics. I was informed by experts in this field that by simply using the certified seed, you can easily double the product even before you come to other measures. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I talked about the standards from the product to the type itself. There is also the grading. We can also enter the export market which is completely shut off for the country at the moment. The people dealing with the export market are from European countries. Netherlands is already doing a million tones. It has about the same production as Kenya. However, we cannot export because we do not have these standards. In the interest of time, I want to cut out the major issue of storage, due to the perishable nature of the crop. We need an organization which can guide on how we can institute measures of storage in Kenya, so that these two or three days cycle can become six months or more. Farmers can, therefore, reap benefits for their sweat and we can attract investment into that area. The Bill proposes a body which is called the National Potato Council. The Committee proposed a change of that name to Potato Board of Kenya, which I agreed to. The reason is that there is a private company called the same name; National Potato Council of Kenya, who I believe is doing a good job in the agricultural sector. Nonetheless, it is a private company. We now want a public body which can handle these things. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I am aware that Members are somewhat averse to parastatals and such authorities. However, I do not know what the real alternative is because if you look at other sectors, for example, the Ministry of Education could have a department minding the syllabus and school curriculum. It is easier to have the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) to do these things. The Government can easily have a department or a section dealing with standards. How do you set up a parastatal or a state corporation called Kenya Bureau of Standards to do these things? The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries could have a department doing research and so on. It is easier to have the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), because it is a specialized body with special knowledge and handling needed. For the same reason, I would like to persuade Members of the Senate that there is nothing wrong with parastatals. We may not overdo it. Even the AFA law did not totally outlaw that you cannot have parastatals. When we say “maize board” or “coffee board” and you do not want that and you create AFA law and directorates---"
}