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{
    "id": 654199,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/654199/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 141,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ochieng",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2955,
        "legal_name": "David Ouma Ochieng'",
        "slug": "david-ouma-ochieng"
    },
    "content": "Thank you so much, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. The Bill before us today deals with expanding the mandate of the National Plant Genetic Resources Research Centre that deals with plant genetic research. The idea is to ensure that going forward, we are able to give the institution a wider mandate in terms of management, preservation and development of genetic resources in the country. The reason we normally set up those kinds of institutions is to help continually, through research and development, the development of seeds and plant varieties. This is quite important because in the last two or three years alone, we have gone through two distinct activities that were really messed up. In Embu County, the reason Governor Wambora was forced out was because he bought the wrong seeds. That was the major reason. When the seeds were given to the people and they planted, they did not grow. In the last few months, I have seen the Departmental Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Co-operatives saying that we are trying to plant a couple of varieties of seeds in Galana. You can imagine investing money in Galana and saying that we should try seven or eight varieties of seeds. Why would you want to do that before you test the seeds? Why do you want to throw money into a place and say that we will see which seed will give us five, 10, 11 or 15 sacks? That kind of institution will help us beforehand, so that we can know in a certain area, the kind of seed that grows there. In Ugenya, I have been giving seeds to my constituents for the last three years. We know that if we give seed variety 513 and it is planted early enough, it will do well. If the rains come late and you give seed variety DHO4, it will do well. That is done through research. The major challenge that we have in this country is the ability of the policy makers to inculcate and use the results of the research from those institutions. Those institutions will not be as good as all of us think they will be unless the policy makers are willing to use the results of those researches. We have the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) in this country. We have so many research centres in this country. They will tell you, if you talk to them. They do their research and come up with some very plausible recommendations that are hardly used. That is because there is a big disconnect between our policy makers, the way we make decisions and research findings."
}