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{
"id": 508828,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/508828/?format=api",
"text_counter": 152,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "December 3, 2014 SENATE DEBATES 18 Sen. (Eng.) Muriuki",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir, for giving me a chance to say a few words in support of this important Bill. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the essence of this Bill, among other things, is to create the board which will mind the affairs of fertilizers on behalf of farmers. Those of us – and I think we are the majority – from agricultural areas have major problems in the production of crops. If you consider most of the crops and the statistics of production per acre, you will find that most of the production per acre or hectare has been going down over the years. Part of the reason for this is that supply of fertilizer has been very haphazard, in terms of actual availability, quality and type. Very often, farmers do not even know which fertilizer to apply where. The moment you talk about fertilizer, farmers will rush and buy whichever is being sold. Because of lack of an organization whose function is principally to guide and mind the affairs of fertilizers, you will find very often that farmers will go for maybe what they can afford. In the absence of any guidance, you will find that, that fertilizer does not work or do not work as intended and the production goes down. The end result is that farmers have a very hard time getting returns out of their sweat. Many of them give up. Worse still sometimes farmers give up on some crops thinking that they have no returns. They move to another crop and face the same circle of frustration. Eventually, farming becomes a very risky business, especially for people who come from outside the farming sector and want to invest in it. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the Bill touches on animal feeds and it is the same circle of frustrations again. At the moment, very many investors are now attempting to go into farming, because it is slightly better off than it has been in the past years. This is because the country is opening up in terms of roads, water and so on. In Nyandarua where I come from, the main activity other than potato farming, is dairy farming. Dairy farming is very frustrating when it comes to animal feeds because there is no one to guide farmers. The expertise which reaches the farmers as to what kind of animal feeds they need to feed particular animals for a particular kind of production is absent. Every farmer then tends to end up doing their own experiment on which animal feed to use, without any guidance. What is missing as far as the animal feeds are concerned are the standards. You do not know which standard is good for what level of production. Therefore, farmers quite often are duped to pay more, thinking that the one which has come recently is better than the earlier one. After a few months or seasons, they will find that, that is not the case. They give up. The end result is a circle of frustrations by the new investors in the farming world. The poor Kenyans have no choice because they do not have money to invest. They maintain the same circle with dwindling returns. The Bill also touches on pesticides which we use to deal with pests and so on. Again, it is the same circle as the fertilizers and animal feeds. It is easy to identify some pesticides. However, it is very difficult to know which one to use. Most farmers go for what others are using. The board in this Bill will only deal with fertilizer. However, in my view, it would have been very useful if it would be made in such a way to encompass all the three principle components of the farming inputs, so that farmers are well catered for. 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."
}