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{
    "id": 628452,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/628452/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 334,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Security Bill, knowing very well that we have had the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) for many years in areas designated by the Government, for example, Kitale, Nakuru, Kisumu, Kericho and Mombasa. We, as a House, need to appreciate that agriculture is now devolved. We have created many committees in the Bills that we have passed, but we need to ask ourselves how they will be implemented. We need to know how much food is in the NCPB stores. When we passed The Food Security Bill we also provided for what should happen in the committees. In Nairobi, for example, you cannot ask people where they farm. Some of them are landlords. That is where they get their income. However, at the end of the day, every Kenyan should have food. This Senate must, therefore, ensure that this amendment Bill and the Food Security Bill are implemented by the Government, so that people access food easily. Madam Temporary Speaker, we have the Galana Food Project which is being implemented. The President is in Israel and has expressed hopes that the project will work. We should devolve cereal boards to Tana River and other places and form committees to ensure that there is enough food and no wastage. We store a lot of food in the cereal boards that we have across the country, but no one monitors or raises a red flag that a certain area has 20,000 or 1,000,000 bags of maize that is about to rot because they are unable to sell or supply. In the past, the NCPB stores had been opened and closed from time to time. The stores should be open all year round, so that if I take my maize there now, I should be able to go back in three months time and buy food. Sometimes we close those stores and import food. That is why farmers are complaining. We have focused so much on maize that we forget that there are other agricultural products that need to be stored. We also have dairy farming which requires storage facilities. My father supplies milk to Kenya Cooperatives Creameries (KCC). There are competitors within the sector. Therefore, there is a surplus of milk right now that they do not know where to take it. If you ask why they cannot produce powder milk, they give you stories, but you find another farmer who has surplus milk producing powder milk. You then ask yourself whether we are in the same country. We are not encouraging our farmers to pursue agriculture as a source of income and livelihood. As we create the committees, there is need to ensure accountability within the industry. Farmers should be able to take their wheat produce to the stores. They should also have a ready market for surplus poultry and poultry products. We should not just focus on maize, but also meat products, wheat and beans. Stores should be available for these products whenever there is surplus. It would be wrong for the Government to let farmers’ institutions go down, just because of competition from the private sector. The Government should stand with the farmers, most of whom are voters, and ensure that they benefit. Most NCPB stores have surplus because farmers lack information. For example, nobody tells them whenever there is bumper harvest that they need to reduce the prices. We keep quiet leaving the farmers wondering why the Government does not buy their maize. We should borrow from what happens with fuel prices. Fuel prices have gone down because there is a lot of competition. Many countries that have oil are now supplying it. For example, Iran is back in the market and so fuel prices will go down. We The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes"
}