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{
    "id": 895396,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/895396/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 239,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Kamar",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 33,
        "legal_name": "Margaret Jepkoech Kamar",
        "slug": "margaret-kamar"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, the President also talked of offering incentives to farmers. This is what we said in our Report. I hope that as the President has given the Committee and the Cabinet Secretary the leeway to come up with bold and transformative interventions to revive the agricultural sector and make it sustainable, that they will read the recommendations that went through this House. The recommendations that went through this House will capture all these areas: Cost reduction, increasing agricultural value-addition and offering incentives. This House gave a lot of very strong recommendations. If they really read this Report they should be able to add value to their own report and be able to give very bold and transformative interventions. Madam Temporary Speaker, one of the incentives that this House agreed unanimously on is the return of the Guaranteed Minimum Returns (GMR). Since Independence up to 1970s when I was in the Ministry of Agriculture as an agricultural extension officer, farmers whose crops were destroyed as a result of nature such as drought and late planting used to get GMR. Only God knows what we are experiencing now and we do not know if we will get rain on time. That meant that when a farmer planted but did not get what they were supposed to get, the Government was supposed to compensate them. For that reason, I am happy that the President talked of a revolving fund for coffee farmers. I urge the President – I believe the President is listening – that we need a revolving fund for maize farmers. We made a recommendation in this House that the grain sector requires a revolving fund where farmers can borrow money and return. We should not have the kind of loans that they get from the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) because those loans have made farmers to go on their knees. Farmers will go nowhere if the AFC continues to operate in the same manner. If we get something close to what is being proposed for coffee farmers, it will help the farmers stand on their feet again. Gone are the days when farmers used to buy brand new tractors, lorries and vehicles for themselves. Now, they depend on middlemen because they cannot afford the cost. That is a shame because without the farmers, there is no food security. I appreciate the fact that water pans are being encouraged for irrigation. However, before we do irrigation, we need to use the agricultural land that we have prudently and make sure that we protect our farmers. Finally, Madam Temporary Speaker, many have talked about development versus security but security is vital. Two days ago, we lost a beautiful girl who was a student at Moi University and that is extremely sad. Sen. Sakaja has provided a list of the number of ladies that we have lost and it is important that the matter is investigated properly. We need to pay attention to our institutions. We do not know whether the young man who killed the lady was also a university student and whether they had been friends. We should protect our youth because if that continues, we will lose many of them. I would like to send my condolences to the family and Moi University which is in my county for what happened because we have lost a dear life. The most important thing is to ask ourselves is how we should protect our students. The other day, a report from a research firm stated that Kenyans are among the happiest people but recently there was also a report that we are among the most depressed people. How did we shift from being among the happiest to being among the most The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}