Sun, 15 Jan 2017 10:42:21 +0000
By SANDRA MACHIMA
OVER 15,000 farmers have not yet received their e-voucher countrywide, says Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) president Jervis Zimba.
ZNFU president Jervis Zimba revealed that the names of the farmers were not submitted to the union to enable them have their visas activated.
He urged the agriculture officials to quickly forward the list of farmers who had already paid the union so that they could receive their inputs before it was too late.
Mr Zimba said the process of e-voucher system was poorly done and that most of the farmers had not received their inputs despite having paid.
He said the union was making a follow-up with some areas such as Chibombo, Kabwe and others that were mostly affected.
Mr Zimba wondered why the system was taking long when everything was in the process. He said only eligible farmers should benefit from the programme.
And Mwambi village headman in Chibombo district Peter Mwachilele has said that late distribution of farming inputs would not be accepted because it would be a waste of resources and therefore, people given the responsibility to assist farmers must ensure small-scale farmers’ e-voucher cards were activated.
Mr Mwachilele appealed to the Government to ensure the e-voucher system was thoroughly monitored and that farmers received their commodities on time.
He said it would be helpful for relevant authorities to be proactive by ensuring that the new system of accessing farming inputs was effective to serve the interest of a farmer.
“There are only 1.5 million farmers that are feeding the population of about 13 million and therefore, a lot should be done to ensure the sector remains the backbone of the country’s food security.
‘‘We are appealing to the Government to be proactive and not waiting to act only when they see people complaining,” he said.
Mr Mwachilele said farmers felt demoralised because their demands were not met, with the less attention they were given.
He appealed to the ZNFU to represent the farmers effectively, if the agriculture sector was to produce to the expectation of the country.
