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"id": 90833,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Mureithi",
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"legal_name": "Erastus Kihara Mureithi",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, thank you very much. On behalf of the Departmental Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Co-operatives, I would like to state that we examined this Vote - Vote No.10 for the Ministry of Agriculture. We are very grateful that the Minister for Agriculture was very keen when we went through this Vote. The Ministry has been given the mandate to promote and facilitate production of food and agriculture, raw materials for food security and income, advance agro-based industries and agricultural exports, formulate, implement and monitor policies and legislations to enhance the sustainable use of land resources as a basis for agricultural development. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the agricultural sector provides 80 per cent of the Kenya employment opportunities and it accounts for more than 20 per cent of the country’s GDP. Subsequently, the agricultural sector is an asset requiring substantial amounts of resources to substantively contribute to the achievement of food security, employment creation, income generation, and poverty reduction in the country. However, the Minister informed the committee that the Ministry received a net allocation of just about Kshs8 billion for the Recurrent Expenditure and another Kshs8 billion for Development Expenditure, respectively against a request of Kshs12.7 billion for Recurrent and Kshs8.4 billion for Development Expenditure. The Minister explained that the Ministry was not consulted and that the Treasury unilaterally made the decision to make the cuts in the requested budget. Therefore, the sector continues to attract under-funding which defeats efforts to achieve food self-sufficiency and sustainable rural development. The whole of the agricultural sector is composed of agriculture, livestock, co-operatives, land and fisheries development; it is the mainstay of the economy but has not been given due attention. The gross allocation to the sector stands at 35.8 billion, which accounts for only 3.59 per cent of the total Budget against the 10 per cent which was agreed on at the Maputo Declaration. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister did explain two flagship projects under the Vision 2030, which informed the Budgets of 2009/10 financial year and continued to guide the formulation of 2010/11 financial estimates. The projects were enhancing of Consolidated Agriculture Reform Bill and undertaking a fertilizer three-tier cost reduction programme. The Minister further explained that the Ministry utilized the funds allocated for 2009/10 financial year to record achievements in the following areas. In the extension services, it hosted field days and farm demonstrations, which benefited 2.9 million farmers and procured 34 motor vehicles. Procurement of farm inputs took Kshs500 million from the GoK, Kshs219 million from JICA, Kshs250 million from NIKE, purchased seeds for farmers at Kshs640 million from GoK and used Kshs53 million from the EU and the World Bank to procure fertilizer for the small scale farmers. Another project was the – Njaa Marufuku - which supported 575 communities. There were five tractors in EMS mechanization system; it procured plant implements like prime movers for farmers. It purchased fungicides and insecticides for some farmers, constructed 28 offices in various districts and constructed 57 water harvesting pans in various districts. Under the Economic Stimulus Package, the Ministry spent Kshs233 million to procure farm inputs, fertilizers and chemicals. It increased crop yield and maize as the Minister has enumerated. The Minister, therefore, requested for funds to upscale these successes. In particular, the Ministry proposed to spend the monies allocated to intensify extension services to cover an estimated Kshs3.2 million farmers and absorb donor funding, amounting to Kshs1.6 billion from the World Bank, and Kshs250 million from the GoK to procure fertilizer and other farm inputs. The Minister outlined programmes, that is Pyrethrum Board of Kenya amounting to Kshs245 million under Recurrent Expenditure, the National Accelerated Agricultural Input Access Monetary Programme amounting to Kshs3.3 billion, Coffee Economic Stimulus Programme amounting to Kshs2.3 billion, bulk fertilizer procurement amounting to Kshs3 billion, grants to Agricultural Development Corporation amounting to Kshs122 million, the National Agricultural and Livestock Extension Programme (NALEP), Kshs248 million and Farm Forestry amounting to Kshs127 million. Construction of five silos with a capacity of 40,000 bags each, totaling Kshs82.5 million while the refurbishment of Kilimo House cost of Kshs36 million. The committee was informed that the non-allocation of funds to this programme resulted in a significant reduction that affected various items in the budget and worked to impact negatively on the operations of the Ministry. The Committee was further informed that the Treasury allocated funds to new programmes, which the Ministry had not requested, such as procurement of 30 mobile dryers and installed four maize dryers costing a total of Kshs760 million. Hire of vehicles took Kshs245 million instead of procuring them. Having contractual workers cost Kshs216 million. The committee, therefore, recommended that the allocations to these new programmes which had not been requested for by the Ministry of Agriculture be reallocated to meet the shortfall occasioned by the reductions in the proposed allocations to the requested projects. The Minister concluded by stating that the Ministry of Agriculture has the capacity to absorb the allocated funds to implement its programmes and projects. For example, the Ministry utilized 98.32 per cent of the total allocation for 2008/09 financial year and consumed 96.3 per cent of the allocated funds in 2009/10 financial year. This reflected a satisfactory performance; no wonder the Ministry achieved the first award in the performance contracting. We are concerned that the Ministry’s allocations should not continue to be reduced. After considering the analysis of the estimates and the submission from the Ministry, the Committee noted and recommended as follows. 1. The Committee noted the Minister’s concern that irrigation for which it has been allocated Kshs106 million in 2010/11 was not under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture but is in the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, yet irrigation forms part of the wider strategy of the Ministry of Agriculture to increase food security. The Committee therefore, recommended that the irrigation unit be reverted to the Ministry of Agriculture. 2. The committee was concerned by the Minister’s revelation that her Ministry was not allocated any money to purchase maize in the printed estimates; instead, there was as an allocation of Kshs2 billion in the Ministry of Special Programmes to purchase maize for Strategic Grain Reserve. 3. The Committee noted that Strategic Grain Reserve was within the mandate of the Ministry of Agriculture and, therefore, recommended the reallocation for SGR to be redirected to the Ministry of Agriculture to purchase maize for the farmers for planting. 4. The Committee was concerned that the Treasury on its own, without consultation with the affected Ministry, allocated money for projects which have not been considered by the Ministries. We cited the case of mobile driers which were allocated a colossal sum of Kshs260 million in the Ministry of Agriculture. The Committee recommended that the Treasury refers to the Ministries whenever such drastic decisions to reallocate funds to new projects are to be made to allow for effective project implementation and efficient absorption of funds by the affected Ministry. The Committee recommended that the allocation of Kshs216 million to employ extension workers on a temporary contract at the constituency level by the Treasury without consultation with the Ministry of Agriculture instead, be utilized to recruit extension staff at district level on a permanent basis as per the Ministry’s earlier request. The Committee agreed with the Minister’s submission that the agricultural technical institutions should not be converted into universities, because this was impacting negatively on acquisition of extension skills by local farmers. The Committee, therefore, recommended that such plans be stopped immediately, if small scale farmers were to be empowered with the much needed extension services education to boost agricultural productivity. The Committee recommended that full implementation of East African Market Protocol, which imposed duty waiver on wheat and rice, reducing it to 10 per cent, be stopped forthwith, so that farmers do not incur huge losses during the current harvest season. The Ministry sought a three-year moratorium from the East African Community partner states to give farmers time to make adjustments in their farming activities, and respond to the new customs tariffs on crop commodities while also allowing the Ministry of Agriculture to play its role in the consultation with EAC. In respect of exportation of raw crop commodities, the Ministry recommended a process of adding value to them. The Committee noted that farmers have not maximised earnings from investments in agriculture. Due to high cess charges on agricultural products, subsequently, the Committee recommended that the cess be abolished across all agricultural produce to stimulate growth in the agricultural sector and enhance rural development. The Committee noted that substantial amounts in the Budget were allocated to bulk purchase of farm inputs such as chemicals and fertilisers by the Ministry of Agriculture and also from the donations from the development partners in the previous years, 2009/2010. The Committee, therefore, recommended that these farm inputs either be subsidized or donated and be equally distributed across the country to benefit all the farmers."
}