Mon, 05 Feb 2018 14:41:47 +0000
By KETRA KALUNGA
Over 90% of farmers in Mumbwa district have received farming inputs under the E-voucher system, Central Province Permanent Secretary Chanda Kabwe has disclosed.
Mr Kabwe however admitted that government had delayed in giving inputs to farmers in Central province under the E-voucher program because the system was new to most of the districts in the province.
He said previously there were only a few districts in the province that were benefiting from the program which has now been implemented 100% in all the districts.
Mr Kabwe further attributed the delay in delivering farming inputs in some districts in the province to some banks that were not familiar with the system.
“We delayed in giving inputs to farmers in some districts in central province, the delay is due to E-voucher program being new in some areas. Previously, only a few benefited from the program,” said Mr Kabwe.
On reports that government had failed farmers in Mumbwa regarding the E-voucher program, Mr Kabwe said it was not true that it failed but only delayed to deliver the inputs due to the earlier stated challenges.
He said the E-voucher system was poised to improve in the 2018-2019 farming season as it had been able to reduce on the number of conmen that were frustrating the program under the farmer input support program (FISP).
“In the chain of supply we had a lot of conmen who pounced on the weakness of the FISP and stole money from government and deprived farmers by forming ghost cooperatives but the E-voucher system is targeting genuine farmers,” said Mr Kabwe.
