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{
    "id": 526415,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/526415/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 247,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Murungi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 93,
        "legal_name": "Kiraitu Murungi",
        "slug": "kiraitu-murungi"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, we compete for this honor with my colleague here, the Senator for Nyandarua, but we produce higher quality potatoes than Nyandarua. I thank my colleague, Sen. (Eng.) Muriuki for introducing the Bill. We in the Committee on Agriculture have really supported him on this Bill. We conducted public hearings and we have listened to all the potato experts in this country. They have by and large supported this Bill and given very good ideas on how it can be improved. We are going to be introducing some amendments at the Committee Stage to allow those ideas to be captured in the Bill. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, if you look at the memorandum of objects and reasons, the purpose and objective of this Bill is to establish a system through which potato farming will be improved, both in quantity and in quality by ensuring set agronomic practices are followed and standardization in packaging regulation of the whole industry is instituted to the benefit of stakeholders. Our main stakeholders as Senators are the farmers. They are the people who elect us. Indeed, 2008, was dedicated to be the year of the potato. However, the farmers celebrated that year, in misery because they were suffering under heavy exploitation by potato brokers. I think this Bill will lift a big burden from the shoulders of the potato farmers in this country. First, the farmers make their own seeds. They select some of the potatoes which were planted in the last season for planting in the next season. If the seeds that you planted were diseased, you will actually harvest diseased potatoes. So, the question of certification of seeds and registration of seed producers in the country is critical to the survival and development of this industry. It is for that reason that I am 100 per cent supporting this Bill. Secondly, as Sen. (Dr.) Zani has observed, potato is catching up with maize as one of the biggest staple foods of this country. We are on the right path because potatoes were originally produced in South America and at that time, there used to be cycles of famine in Europe. Europeans used to die because there was not enough food there. However, with the discovery of potatoes by Christopher Columbus and taking them back to Europe, those cycles of famine ended in Europe. It is only a matter of time that we shall stop relying wholly on maize to sort out problems especially in the northern Kenya where these cycles of famine exist. We will now be talking about potatoes. That is why 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."
}