K100m released to clear FISP debts

Wed, 14 Jun 2017 11:04:20 +0000

By AARON CHIYANZO
ONLY K100 million has been released towards the clearing of the K2.6 billion debt owed to various service providers engaged during the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) for the 2016/2017 farming season, Ministry of Agriculture permanent secretary Julius Shawa has said.
Mr Shawa disclosed that Government last week released about K100 million towards the clearing of the debt owed to service providers who were engaged during the 2016/2017 farming season under FISP.
He pointed out that priority would be to clear the seed companies, transporters and a balance of K226 million under the E-voucher programme.
Mr Shawa, however, assured that the Ministry of Finance would soon release more funds towards the dismantling of the agro debt as Government was committed to clearing it as soon as possible.
“Priority for now as minister mentioned are seed companies, transporters and balance of e-voucher. The K100 million was released last week,” he said.
Minister of Agriculture Dora Siliya recently disclosed that Government was owing seed suppliers K326.2 million, fertilizer suppliers K568 million and transporters engaged by the ministry to transport fertilizer K64 million.
The minister disclosed that the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) also owed K167 million to various transporters of maize bought by the agency.
She said that Government also owed Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia which was engaged to produce D compound fertilizer about K1.18 billion.
“The debt under the E-voucher programme is pegged at K226 million, which is pending to pay some farmers whose electronic voucher cards are not activated despite farmers making K400 contributions,” said Ms Siliya.
Government has announced that it will this year spend K2 billion to implement the electronic voucher (E-voucher) system under FISP.