By NATION REPORTER
THERE is no single bag of fertilizer that has been delivered to Chama district three week after the Minister of Agriculture Mutolo Phiri flagged off the distribution of the inputs and it is most likely that the 2022/2023 farming season will be a disaster, Davison Mung’andu has charged.
And Yotum Mutayachalo, the Chama North MP says has had asked Mr Phiri about the delay in the distribution of fertilizer in Chama and he was assured that the trucks would be rolling the Eastern Province to deliver the fertilizer without giving a specific date or deadline.
Ordinarily, the distribution of fertilizer should have commenced in the month of June or July but the procurement of the input had been delayed as government had been tendering and cancelling tenders on account of faulty procedural tendering.
Mr Mung’andu, the Chama South Member of Parliament (MP) is worried that this year farming season would be a failure because government was way out of time in the delivery and distribution of the input to farmers.
The Chama South legislature said he did not even know the companies that had been contracted to supply, deliver and distribute the fertilizer fearing that the companies may not have the capacity or the inputs in their warehouses.
Mr Mung’andu fears that farmers in far-flung rural communities risked not receiving the fertilizer particularly that the rainy season is just about to start and it would be practically impossible for the trucks to reach such areas.
Mr Mung’andu who was in Chama last week said he had not seen a single truck loaded with fertilizer driving into the district, stating that government should hasten and deliver the inputs to avert crop failure which could easily result into famine.
He said although Mr Phiri (Agriculture Minister) had flagged off the distribution of fertilizer with flamboyance, there was a danger that farmers may not receive the inputs in time, which would affect the crop yield next year.
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