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{
"id": 754166,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/754166/?format=api",
"text_counter": 146,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Nyenze",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 1987,
"legal_name": "Francis Mwanzia Nyenze (Deceased)",
"slug": "francis-mwanzia-nyenze"
},
"content": "I have learned that we need ammonia and waste from, say, sugar factories to make fertilizers. We have all these things. We will import only a few ingredients. So, instead of establishing only one factory, we should target establishing many factories because the process does not involve sophisticated technology. What is needed is medium technology, which we can source from within. Hon. Speaker, Sir, agriculture is a very key sector of our economy. Economies that have done very well in the world, including that of the USA, which is the biggest economy in the world, were initially fed by agriculture. The USA started with agriculture and progressed to value addition, after which they moved to manufacturing and other economic activities. Agriculture is the only sector into which we can absorb all our jobless youth, so that they do not join all sorts of sects and illegal groups. If we inject a lot of money into agriculture, it will cater for everybody. It will enable the economy to grow. That is what I would want the Government to do. We have to deal with five things in order for us to get it right. It is not only agriculture. For there to be food security, we have to give subsidies not only on fertilizers but also on seeds and land tilling. Once we do that, poor farmers will be encouraged and will grow and produce more food. Once food crops are produced, we should do a bit of value addition through manufacturing, so that we can sell products at higher prices on the market. The issue of taxation also counts. As long as the Government keeps on taxing fuel products excessively, farmers will remain poor. Whether we import or manufacture our own fertilizers, taxing of oil products makes agricultural production very expensive. Farmers get very little returns because most of their income is consumed by taxation. Another important thing is diversification. Instead of dealing with maize, sugar- cane and export crops, let us go back to our traditional food crops, namely sorghum, beans and other legumes. I am sure that if we take that route, we will address most of the issues associated with food insecurity. The last important bit is mechanisation. In areas where people use tractors for ploughing, they plough large tracts of land compared to those who use oxen ploughs. Two hundred oxen do work which can be done by one tractor. So, if you factor in the cost of the time spent ploughing using oxen and the cost of human resource and feeding of the oxen, you will appreciate that it is not economically viable to use oxen ploughs. We will remain in the dark age if we do not mechanise. Hon. Speaker, Sir, what has brought problems to the NCPB, in terms of importation and distribution of fertilisers, is corruption. There are people who want to benefit from importation of fertilizers. Such people will always resist any move to set up a separate board to oversee importation and distribution of fertilizers, or even the setting up of factories to produce fertilizers locally, because that is where they make their money from. It is time we rose above personal interest and moved forward. Countries like China, India and the USA, which produce common foodstuffs, namely wheat, maize, rice, barley and potatoes, adopted the policy of assisting farmers through subsidies and investing a lot of money in agriculture. This policy makes other sectors of the economy to have a slower growth but the growth in agriculture shoots up. Once you develop agriculture, build factories to manufacture agricultural produce and create a local market, you are home and dry. As a country, we are poor because we have very little say in the pricing of most of the crops that we grow and export to the The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}