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{
    "id": 977161,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/977161/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 289,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mandera West, EFP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Yussuf Adan",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13420,
        "legal_name": "Adan Haji Yussuf",
        "slug": "adan-haji-yussuf-2"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I stand to support this Motion. I am a Member of the Departmental Committee on Agriculture and Livestock and I was part of the team that went to the research institute in Ruiru. We all know that coffee is an important cash crop in this country because it gives us the much-needed foreign exchange earnings. One of the best ways of getting our foreign exchange earnings is to ensure that coffee, tea, livestock and other things that we have at hand are improved and developed to the maximum. That way, we will be able to compete in the global village where everybody is producing everything and taking it to the same market. It is unfortunate that for over 10 years now since AFA was formed, it has not been functional. The institutions that were collapsed to form AFA like the Coffee Research Institute and others have gone down the drain. What have we gained by forming AFA? Nothing! The Coffee Research Institute has recommended that it needs to go back to where it was before. It needs to be independent from AFA so that it can continue getting the levy that it used to get. The institute assured the Committee that if that happens, then it would do better and even earn this country more foreign exchange earnings. The pace at which that institute is moving is unfortunate. It has only 17 scientists who are ageing like me. Soon we will have no researchers there and we may ask the Government to give farmers relief food. You know farmers use their land to grow coffee and the cash they get from the sale of coffee is what feeds their families. If they will no longer grow coffee and earn money, the Government will be forced to look for funds from elsewhere, maybe through foreign loans, to feed their families. The scientists used to offer advice to farmers. When the institute was working well, the extension services were in plenty. Farmers with small problems in their coffee farms knew where to go for solutions. Today, farmers are in a pathetic state. They do not know where to go for any solutions to their problems. The Coffee Research Institute has gone down the drain. Now, it is like the blind is leading the blind. The institute is blind. It does not have any future and the farmers are still relying on it. They will both die. They will never recover. On funding of coffee and the whole agriculture sector, I am sure the Government has signed many relevant protocols, for example, the Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security which requires the Government to give 10 per cent of our revenue earnings to the Ministry of Agriculture in order to improve productivity. We are a country which heavily relies on agriculture. We do not have minerals or oils. I am even told the Turkana oil wells are now dry. After getting only a few lorries of oil from there, I am told the situation is now very bad. So, what we do have as a country to rely on is only agriculture, whether it is crops or the livestock or the fisheries or the related manufacturing sectors which rely on agriculture. This is where our comparative advantage lies. Unfortunately, we are giving this sector a very raw deal. The Committee has done its best, but writing a report, discussing it here in Parliament and passing it alone does not mean that we are able to move forward. The most important thing is, these recommendations be implemented to the letter. For the few years I have been in this House, it is my observation that a lot of good things pass through this House but when it comes to actual implementation, it is not very good. This is the same with this Report. We still have time, resources and the will by the farmers to recover our farming industry. But if we delay further and we do not do anything in the next few years, it will be very unfortunate. We hear the The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}