HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 993730,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/993730/?format=api",
"text_counter": 36,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Kabaka",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13206,
"legal_name": "Boniface Mutinda Kabaka",
"slug": "boniface-mutinda-kabaka-2"
},
"content": "As I speak, I do not think this is the first time that this subject has been introduced. In one way or the other, it has been brought before this Senate and the National Assembly. It is said that a country that cannot feed its own people is bound to perish. This country is on the verge of going that direction, but we can correct it. Madam Temporary Speaker, maybe you will bear me witness that as a professor in a university, there are a lot of published papers and journals on this subject of the economics of agriculture. This country has done all the best paperwork. The Government needs to do what we call price stabilization in order to ameliorate the problem of the middleman. It goes without saying that there are so called cartels in this country. Any time any part of this country has a bumper harvest - or a boom as it is called in economics - as opposed to glut, that is the time you see them. They are very smart, have a briefcase, access to capital in the banks, and they get the money. They know the price for the product is ‘X’, but they can sell it later, after six months or even one year, to the Government at price ‘X2.’ That way, they make more money. That is why we are saying that it is high time that, at the time we have the boom, the Government is supposed to buy from the farmers. During the time we have the glut, as we were taught in economics, the Government can now sell to the farmers and its people at a subsidized price. That way, they will kill the cartels. I also sit in the Committee of Finance and Budget, and I am aware that the Cabinet Secretary (CS) for Finance has some powers and latitude. Any time there is a shortage of maize, cereals or any product in this country, the CS has the power to gazette and allow some window for importation of those cereals. However, more often than not, we have realized that the CS for Finance has not used those powers in the right way. They have abused those powers, and that way, they have opened up a Pandora’s Box for those cartels, and they are given the list. It goes without saying, because that list is always gazetted. If you were to search in the company registries, we would have unmasked them. Madam Temporary Speaker, I remember that you and I, together with Sen. Wetangula, were in the same Committee that was looking into the maize crisis in the Western Region. You were also affected. I remember that we went all the way to Busia. We saw how farmers were not happy with the way the Government handled the state of affairs of the cereals, more so in the Rift Valley. I saw that with my own eyes. They said that that they would even stop growing the maize and go for better produce. Madam Temporary Speaker, I think it is high time that this Government comes in to look at the issue of the cost of production, which has been mentioned. It is too high in this country; this is because you incur a very high cost of production, just to sell the produce at a throwaway price. This, therefore, defeats logic in economics. There is a problem in this country because in Uganda they produce a sack of maize at a cost of about Kshs300 and sell it at around Kshs1,500. However, in this country you produce at the cost of Kshs1,000 and sell at Kshs900. There is a problem. We need to look into that. There is also the issue of the use of appropriate technology. Nowadays, we do not have huge tracts of land as it were, which determines the production level as opposed to the appropriate technology, especially in e-agribusiness. Young men, even graduates with Masters and PhDs, have known that there is money in this kind of venture. Therefore, we 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."
}