Gideon Ndambuki

All parliamentary appearances

Entries 321 to 330 of 1161.

• 25 Oct 2011 in National Assembly: (c) My Ministry in consultation with other stakeholders is undertaking the following measures to ensure that tea farming remains viable. view
• 25 Oct 2011 in National Assembly: (i) Encouraging the use of cheaper sources of energy such as own factory generated hydro-electricity and increased tree plantation for wood fuel. (ii) Undertaking promotions with particular focus on high value markets such as Europe. (iii) Encouraging product diversification away from CTC Tea. (iv) Promoting planting of high yielding tea varieties to improve on productivity. (v) Undertaking policy reviews to enhance the level of tea value addition which currently stands at less than 10 per cent of the total export volume. (vi) Exploring the possibility of ensuring that wage increases within the subsector are based on productivity. I wish to ... view
• 25 Oct 2011 in National Assembly: Mr. Speaker, Sir, it is true that those tea factories are the only ones which are getting less than Kshs30 per kilogramme. This is because of the efficiency of the factory and the cost involved in the factories. I would like to request the Member to visit the factories and see what exactly is being done. If you look at what is being paid, you will find that majority of the factories are being paid over 80 per cent bonuses of their tea. view
• 25 Oct 2011 in National Assembly: Mr. Speaker, Sir, I am not aware that the Act was not gazetted. I will follow it up and make sure that it is gazetted. view
• 25 Oct 2011 in National Assembly: Mr. Speaker, Sir, all the tea farmers belong to a particular factory and they are not supposed to move out of that region and go to another one. If that is what is happening in that factory, I am going to request the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) to check why it is happening like that; if multinationals take tea from the ordinary factories, we will take action. view
• 25 Oct 2011 in National Assembly: Mr. Speaker, Sir, a few months ago, we tried to get KTDA to import fertilizer the way we import fertliser for maize, but we ended up not succeeding because farmers did not want it to work. I support what the hon. Member is saying. If the fertilizer used by tea farmers is imported in bulk the farmers will enjoy a relief on the cost of the fertilizer. We are still talking with KTDA to do that, because at the moment they are the ones who take care of the inputs. view
• 25 Oct 2011 in National Assembly: Mr. Speaker, Sir, at the moment, we do not have any incentives that we can give to tea farmers, but the Ministry is looking at ways of improving the growing of tea. But we have a major problem which is sub-division of the land. Land is becoming smaller and smaller; the majority of the 75 farmers we are talking about are small-scale farmers and grow their tea on one or half an acre. I would appeal to the hon. Members to discourage farmers from sub-dividing their land into small portions, which are not going to be of any use; they ... view
• 25 Oct 2011 in National Assembly: Mr. Speaker, Sir, I am not misleading. It is the truth. If you look at some of the areas, tea growing has been reduced to a quarter of an acre. How many bushes of tea can you grow on a quarter of an acre? The only thing I can ask is that we try as much as possible not to sub-divide the land on which we plant our tea. view
• 25 Oct 2011 in National Assembly: Mr. Speaker, Sir, I am not really in a position to assure the House that we are in a position to take over those loans; I can only ask the hon. Member to make sure that the factories are run efficiently, they produce quality, and not quantity, tea and I am sure they will be able to service the loans. view
• 25 Oct 2011 in National Assembly: Mr. Speaker, Sir, as you say, as a Ministry we will think about it, and will let him know. Thank you. view