Mon, 11 Dec 2017 13:47:31 +0000
By Mailesi Banda
FARMERS in the Eastern Province are not accessing seed from the Farmer Input Support Programme since their accounts have not been loaded by the government to enable them access fertiliser.
Hamilton Chamba a farmer in Lundazi district said the agro dealers are not giving the farmers fertilizer saying the Government has not loaded the cards with the required amount to allow them get fertiliser.
Speaking in an interview with the Daily Nation, Mr. Chamba fears that a repeat of what happened during the 2016/2017 farming season would occur due to lack of coordination in the distribution of the inputs.
He noted that during the 2016/2017 farming season, most farmers did not yield the expected harvest due to delays in the issuance of E voucher cards adding that while farmers thought this farming season would be better it was unfortunate that the situation was not improving.
“Farmers here in the Eastern Province are just getting seed from the agro dealers which is being charged from the K400 they have deposited into their cards as the dealers are failing to access fertiliser due to the lack of funds from the Government,” he said.
In February this year government pledged to start distributing inputs for the 2017-2018 farming season under the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) from June this year.
Ministry of Agriculture permanent secretary Julius Shawa said farmers where likely to start receiving farm inputs as early as June immediately after the procurement process was completed a thing that has not been done.
“We have been tasked to ensure that we distribute farm inputs to the farmers as early as June, so we have started the preparations,” he said.
Mr. Shawa said the early distribution of farm inputs will greatly enhance productivity in the agriculture sector as farmers will be able to plant their seed immediately the rainy season starts.
He also said Government is putting in place modalities which will enable farmers using the electronic voucher system (e-voucher) to have their cards activated quickly.
