Friday, March 29, 2024

Kafue farmers to benefit from the FSP

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Kafue district has been allocated 1, 296 metric tonnes of basal and top dressing fertilizer under the Fertilizer Support Programme (FSP) for this year’s farming season.

Kafue District Acting Commissioner, Henry Bowa, disclosed the development to ZANIS in an interview today that a total of 3,240 small scale farmers will this year benefit from the subsidized agriculture inputs in the district.

Mr. Bowa further added that a total of 64.8 metric tonnes of seed has been allocated to the district under the same programme.

Mr. Bowa said farmers will this year only pay 25 per cent of the total cost for both seed and fertilizer.

He said each farmer will be entitled to a pack consisting of eight bags of fertilizer and two 20 kilograms (kg) bags of seed.

He said this may be increased depending on how much a farmer was willing to pay.

Mr. Bowa however said the amount of inputs allocated to the district was not sufficient as Kafue has more than 10,000 small-scale farmers.

He noted that it was important that the Ministry of Agriculture considered increasing the amount of inputs so that more farmers benefit, especially that many of them lost their crop early this year due to floods.

And Kafue District Agriculture Acting Coordinator, Frank Simushi, and each pack will be selling between K508, 000 and K550, 000.

He said many farmers in the district have already deposited their money through cooperatives to which they belong.

Mr. Simushi said no farmer will be sold the subsidized inputs if one does not belong to a cooperative.

He said all the inputs were already in the district, adding that buying and collecting of the inputs by farmers will commence soon.

Mr. Simushi also disclosed that the district agriculture committee has since appointed a Kafue District Cooperative Union to distribute the inputs to respective depots throughout the district.

ZANIS/BS/KSH/ENDS

10 COMMENTS

  1. There should be an agric audit based on inputs provided and total prodution per district. This should start this season and now..At the fert application rate of 400kg/ha, 1296 tons of fertizer is enought for 3240ha.With average maize management(based on good externsion services) the minimum maize yield should be 3.5 tons/ha. Therefore the 3240 farmers in Kafue District should produce a minimum of 11,340 tons of maize. Therefere, DC and DACO Kafue the tax payers of Zambia expect nothing less than 226,800 x 50kg bags from Kafue, Period! If you fail you’re fired and for farmers No more FSP fert.

    If this fert is given to Commercail farmers, the yeild will be 6ton/ha and 19,440 tons total.

  2. Based on the analysis above(#5), small holder farmers(and the DCs/DACOs) should justify why Govt should subsidise them when they are loss-producers. In 2009/2010 Govt should should instead give FSP inputs to Commercial farmers. The bigs guys can produce surplus maize even to feed the whole population of Zambia for 3 years.

  3. is LT a section of MMD? it looks it only compaigns for the Rejected Ballots (RB)… bring more good news like the one i wrote… look at the comments … plenty!!!!!

  4. its not true,this is just politics!MMD chaps should be real,they reduce the fertiliser prices when its not on market!nobabwa nywebo!

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