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{
    "id": 946034,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/946034/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 76,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Tongaren, FORD-K",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) Eseli Simiyu",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 141,
        "legal_name": "David Eseli Simiyu",
        "slug": "david-eseli"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker. I rise on a matter of national importance. The coffee industry is very important in this country. However, as you notice, just like the tea industry, there are very serious problems vis-à-vis the pricing. One premier institution in the coffee industry is the Coffee Research Institute, which was previously called Coffee Research Foundation. I had a chance to visit there very recently and it is a shame. Its own coffee is blighted seriously by coffee berry disease. You cannot find employees. They just show up and go. When I tried to inquire, I was informed that their salaries are so delayed. They do not have materials to run the institution. They do not even have the chemicals to spray for the coffee berry disease. They are the ones who produce seedlings but they are not producing any seedlings. They are not even underfunded; they are not funded. If you might not be aware, recently, coffee growing has moved to the North Rift, South Rift and parts of Western Kenya, including West Pokot. It means that we are spreading out to other areas where there is still land to grow coffee, but we are killing the premier institution for coffee research. It means that despite the accolades the Coffee Research Institute, then called Coffee Research Foundation, acquired in the world for research on varieties like Ruiru 11 and Batian, we are losing all that. I would like you to direct the Departmental Committee on Agriculture and Livestock to visit that institution and find out what is ailing it before we lose it all. If we lose it, we will lose all the research memories we have and all the development of coffee and that would be dangerous for our economy."
}