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{
"id": 86148,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/86148/?format=api",
"text_counter": 349,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Obure",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Public Works",
"speaker": {
"id": 118,
"legal_name": "Christopher Mogere Obure",
"slug": "christopher-obure"
},
"content": " Thank you very much, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to make some remarks on this important Bill. The tea sector is very important to this nation. I am talking about something I know because I represent farmers who are involved in tea production at very small farm level. That crop is important because it enables farmers to support their families. It gives them income which gives them a livelihood at that level. The crop is important because it has created employment opportunities for a large number of our people. It is important because it has helped this nation in earning foreign exchange and in so doing; it helps us in respect of our balance of payments as a nation. If you look around, you will see that a large segment of our people depend on that crop. The economy of Meru, Nyeri, Kericho, Murangâa, Kirinyaga and even Kisii is dominated by that crop. It has been a source of income and livelihood for many of our people. Although that sector is largely liberalized and is supposed to be managed by farmers themselves, the truth of the matter is that the Government should continue to strengthen its oversight on the sector. If something went wrong in that sector, the economy of this nation will be in complete disarray. The sector cannot be ignored because of the serious ramifications that it has on the economy at large. I am also aware that the sector can make a greater impact than it does to this economy. For example, only a small portion of the tea that we produce is given value addition. The bulk of it, a very huge percentage that would be beyond 90 per cent of what we produce, is exported in bulk form. That means that our farmers are not able to derive the maximum benefits from that cash crop. That is where I believe those who are mandated to steer the economy have failed us. I am talking about Tea Board of Kenya and KTDA. I am talking about the large estates that export their tea in bulk and, thereby, fetching a small amount of money out of the potential that exists. If you look at some countries, for example, Sri Lanka, a large portion of their tea is value-added. Therefore, the farmers in that country are able to earn much more than we do in this country. India has also taken the same direction. Vietnam, which is a latecomer in this industry, is also following those footsteps. I, therefore, feel that time has come when we should focus our attention more on value-addition as a nation. I am aware that the industry faces huge challenges. However, I must agree with the previous speaker who said that the KTDA, as it is today, is largely a success story. Look at what has happened to the management of other sectors like the cotton, coffee and the pyrethrum sectors? All those have collapsed. The fact that tea continues to succeed today is, in itself, a testimony of effectiveness of the management of that sector. Therefore, we must congratulate those who have been responsible for sustaining that sector. I am aware that the sector faces many challenges such as high production costs at the factory level. Those responsible for the management must continue to strive to reduce production costs. If they do so, they will effectively be enhancing earnings to farmers. High collection costs â and the hon. Member for Ainamoi has made a reference to that a few minutes ago â are giving farmers a lot of difficulties. He is quite right. I believe that KTDA should have, by now, moved away from collecting leaf directly from farmers. The farmers should be asked to deliver their own tea to various factories. What is happening is that you will find one farmer is next to the factory. But other farmers are very far from the factory. However, they are all charged the same amount in terms of transportation. That should not be the case. Farmers who are closer to the factory should have an advantage of close proximity to the factory. In my view, that is something that KTDA should look into. It should hand over that function to the farmers themselves. Therefore, I support the sentiments expressed by the Member for Ainamoi in that respect. The other area where there is a challenge is the quality of directors elected to serve tea farmers in the tea factories. I think the level we are as a country; we are capable of producing better quality people who have the knowledge and who understand management. We have people who understand the operations of the factories. Those are the kind of people we should target to be at the helm of those organizations. We have people who are capable of steering the organizations to higher levels of performance. Fertilizer is a very expensive commodity to tea farmers. Many of them can hardly afford fertilizer. I really hope that some way will be found to obtain cheaper fertilizer for farmers. If we did so, we will be enhancing earnings to farmers. The Tea Board of Kenya (TBK) has particularly failed tea farmers. They have the mandate to market Kenyan tea but we do not seem to know what they are doing. We do not seem to see any significant achievement in respect to tea marketing. At this stage, however, as Kenyans, we should all be involved. Even our diplomacy should now be geared towards enhancing exports like tea which come from this country. Therefore, all of us including our diplomats abroad and everybody else, should now be focused in promoting our main export products. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have relied very heavily to selling our tea to certain traditional markets; Pakistan, Egypt and the European Union (EU). No attempts seem to have been made to diversify our export destinations. Personally, I fear that by relying too heavily on exporting to our traditional markets only, we end up being blackmailed. We end up not deriving the maximum benefit from the crop. Therefore, marketing is important. We should diversify. Go out there and make serious efforts to reach new markets. Let me also mention some very serious challenge. I am aware that this is likely to be controversial but I will make my point. This is in respect to the role of the multi- nationals. I know the Member for Ainamoi mentioned this. Multi-nationals offer a parallel arrangement to the one conducted by the Kenya Tea Development Authority (KTDA). The KTDA concentrates on small scale farmers but multi-nationals are huge operators. I also want to agree that the main motivation from the multi-nationals is profits. They want to maximize their profits. They are not interested in the small scale Kenyan farmers. Therefore, from that perspective, their interests are different from the interests of the Kenyan people. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, recently we experienced cases of people hawking tea; going out to tea farms and buying green leaves from the tea farmers. They offer reasonable prices and, therefore, the general tendency is for the small scale farmers who need cash for the day to sell their green leaf to the multi-nationals. The multi- nationals use the KTDA tea to blend so that the grades for their tea can improve. I want to oppose this system. I feel we should protect the small scale farmers. It is exploitation and as a people, we should not allow our small scale tea farmers to be exploited by those who have the money and those who can pay cash on the spot. This is dangerous. What is going to happen is that the moment they kill the small factories owned by small scale farmers, we will be forced into a situation where the multi-nationals take over. We will then have a monopoly and we will be doing very badly to ourselves and to the poor farmers. I think this is something that should be discouraged at any cost. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the issue of research is important because no development can take place without research. I am glad that in this Bill, the Minister for Agriculture is focusing rightly on the importance of research. This is something we must encourage more and more. We should find more ways of finding market out there. This way, we will derive the maximum benefits out of this very important crop. I want to mention that at the time when the reforms in the tea sector were being carried out, I was the Minister for Agriculture. At that time, the cry from the farmers was that they wanted less and less of Government involvement in the management of the crop. They were given their way. I must say that over the last ten years, since the last major reforms were carried out, a lot of success has been achieved. Therefore, the farmers were right in what they wanted to do at that time. I think they have managed the industry in the right direction. Now, we need to strengthen the KTDA system. We need to ensure that everything is done to maximize on the advantages that we already have. Consolidate what we have already gained and we move forward. With those few remarks, I support."
}