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{
    "id": 774394,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/774394/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 241,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "February 21, 2018 SENATE DEBATES 41 Sen. (Prof.) Ongeri",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, initially, when Sen. Dullo asked me to second this Bill, I was not quite clear on the nature and direction that the Bill would take. However, now that I feel more educated and informed, it is quite clear that one of the most untidy business today is the produce coming from the farmhouse. The prices being offered at the farm gate houses or delivery centres including the ones at the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) are appalling. For instance, I have in mind one of the most precious commodities coming from my county, Kisii County, as well as Nyamira County; the production of avocado. Every time I have visited the small markets, it is very distressful that the avocado which is so cherished in hotels in Nairobi and export markets is being wasted away for Ksh5. When I am in a hotel in Dubai, the price of the avocado is about US$5. A poor farmer is being coerced because of the glut in the market of avocado fruit. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I hope that this Warehouse Receipt System Bill will go a long way in addressing this important transient means of marketing some of these products that the farmers waste away. They put in so much energy and pressure in trying to grow these items yet they get wasted away. The other commodity that I see is wasted away is the banana unless you have a value addition. I hope that these warehousing systems will also mutate or transform the farmer to go a step further so that the warehousing of these products will be semi- processed where they are processed partially for local consumption as well as export. It will be a stimulus for everyone to buy these commodities and items. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, during the contribution, I heard Sen. Poghisio or Sen. Kajwang say that this can act as a barter trade on commodities based on the expert advice that they got from India. Barter trade was at one time considered a very primitive way of dealing with trade. However, a time came when countries were stressed on the issue of foreign exchange reserves that they had no choice except to resort to barter trade. The trade had the element of defrauding the farmers and those who supply the commodities. I hope this warehousing receipt system will innovate on the crude barter trade system so that whatever is stored and the grading and the categorisation of the product will help to fetch a better price. I am also wary about some of the warehouses; farmers in this country have lost products like coffee in the private warehouses. We must be very careful when we want to promote this kind of system without recourse to what has happened within this country. For instance, the cotton ginneries were one such example where farmers were lured into."
}