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{
    "id": 90856,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/90856/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 149,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Prof. Kamar",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Environment and Mineral Resources",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 33,
        "legal_name": "Margaret Jepkoech Kamar",
        "slug": "margaret-kamar"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity. I congratulate the Minister for moving a very well articulated Motion. As I support this Motion, I would like to echo what my colleagues have said about having deliberate policies that should encourage food security in this country. I come from an agricultural area. It is amazing that currently, farmers are the poorest people and yet we rely on them to feed this country. We need to deliberately decide how we will approach the issue of food security. We have been among the nations which have been disputing the issue of food subsidies in the West. But it is time that we, as a country, decided that when it comes to food security, it is our priority and we must give subsidies. There is no way a farmer will produce anything and make a profit when the prices of foodstuffs are escalating and we know that our people will not afford. The Ministry should, therefore, come up with policies which will address the issue of how farmers can produce food for us as well as make money out of it. When I joined the Ministry of Agriculture in the early 1980s, there used to be something called Guaranteed Minimum Returns (GMR). I am wondering what happened to it. I would urge the Minister to re-introduce it. It is very important that farmers have security when they are producing their produce. Whether we are going to come up with minimum or maximum acreage for food production in the new Constitution, it is very important that the Ministry starts to re-looks at how food is produced in this country. If, for example, last year we did not produce anything, how are we going to take care of that? We need to either give subsidies or we re-introduce the GMR. With those remarks, I support."
}