The Japanese Government has given the Zambia government a grant of K12 billion for the importation of fertilizer for the 2009/10 farming season.
Japanese Ambassador to Zambia Hideto Mitamura signed on behalf of Japan while Finance and National planning Minister, Ng’andu Magande signed for the Zambian government.
Speaking at the signing ceremony in Lusaka today, Mr. Magande said the fertilizer which will be procured using the grants will be added to the Fertilizer Support Program (FSP) and will target small scale farmers in Kabwe and Kapiri Mposhi in the central province.
Mr. Magande noted that the grant will enable small scale farmers in the two districts to acquire agriculture inputs necessary for increasing food production.
He charged that most small scale farmers have been constrained to increasing food production due to among other reasons the lack of modern agriculture inputs and high transportation costs.
Mr. Magande however said the ministry of finance and energy is looking at ways of reducing the prices of fuel as a way of mitigating the cost of production.
Mr. Magande also disclosed that most farmers have already received fertilizers under the FSP for the forthcoming farming season.
He noted that this years farming inputs have been heavily subsidized by government to enable more farmers to acquire the inputs for increased food production.
Mr. Magande hoped that small scale farmers in Kabwe and Kapiri Mposhi who will acquire the fertilizer under the Japanese grant will use them productively in order to increase yields and quantities.
Meanwhile Zambia and Japan have also signed records of discussions for the Zambia policy dialogue on economic cooperation.
Mr. Magande noted that the Zambia-Japan policy dialogue which takes place every year seeks to indicate the priority areas of the national development plan with a view to aligning the aid from Japan to Zambia.
He noted that the record of discussions is an important document for planning and managing the Fifth National Development Plan (FNDP) with regard to theJapanese financial and technical support.
Mr. Magande expressed gratitude to the Japanese government for the support it has continued to render to Zambia in the vast areas of development.
Speaking Earlier, Japanese Ambassador to Zambia Hideto Mitamura said increased agriculture production and productivity are critical for the effective implementation of FNDP.
Mr. Mitamura noted that the grant is the second assistance which the Japanese government has extended to Zambia’s agriculture sector directly related to poverty reduction in 2008 alone.
He hoped that the grants will go along way towards the enhancing the quality of life for the people of Zambia as well as contributing to the country’s economic and social development.
ZANIS/YK/AM/ENDS
Oh God please help me, did i miss something, we have a fertiliser plant but instead we choose to import Fertiliser… I am not a genius but what the phaack is going on. 12 billion on fertiliser… it better be a bumper harvest. Thank you japan for helping us. Magande = Accountability
12 million people, lets share 1 million kwacha each.
# 2 good observation,
mwayamba ukwangala futi ba LT
# 2 .Excellent idea,12 Milliona of us.why not just share it.among ourselves.
Umuntu mubi!
Constitutional ! ! Nice one then we will all share in the national resources Not bakazidya beka bakawalala
Pabwatooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Pabwatooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo,Pabwatooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo,Pabwatooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. AKULUMBENI BA MONK
Lets hope Magande does not use the money to bail out that airline
#2 Excellent! Blimey.
Stop it! you juniour plunderers.
To #2 – Constitutional: we’d need 12 trillion Kwacha to share at a million each. K12 billion gives us a pin each.
yaba u chaps. where u always absent for maths class. lol
These chaps are jokers. Kungena munkongole for expenditure which will also mean next year again same amount of nkongole futi kukongola. Please make NCZ a viable business entity that will be cheaply supplying fert. After all you will be making NCZ productive. Look NCZ require 100 bilion for a total rehab and you borrow 10 billion that will only buy fert for one season where is the logic? I would rather borrow 100 billion and ensure that NCZ is viable to repay part of the nkongole. Anyway there is Magande and MMD policies for u. Lets go HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
#2, your 1 pini will be sent by Western Union. 12bn divide 12mil equals….
Give us a break Magande. K12 billion for Kapiri, Kabwe and rural Central province only? Then how much would we need for the whole country i.e 72 districts? My simple maths tells me over K200 billion. The question is why can’t we pump this into NCZ?
Magande i thought you have a heard en dat you can reason. this is where you wanted top take us GRANTS FOR YOUR POCKTS. why why. that is short term plan. how about long term plan en the VISION 2030. next time dont even cheat us with your future plans that matures on paper. tell your secretaries to write what you are capable of doing en that is borrowing for your pocket. am ashamed of you mwandi. am no longer your SOCCER FUN lo! viva chipolopolo
#14 you are talking sense and that is the kind of debate I want to hear besides the jokes about sharing the money. We are blessed with the power of internet and I think we should use it wisely. The news states that Japan has given Zambia K12 billion – is this really a gift or a loan with interest rates we do not know about. Lets find out how Zambia intends to repay and what are the punitive measures in place in case of an earlier repayment? K12 billion kwacha equates to just about £1.8 million pounds or $3.6 million dollers. If our economy is supposedly doing so well and we are the fourth largest producer of copper in the world, it beggers belief that we cant raise £1.8M on our own
Thank you Kapi – a refreshingly probing contribution. And while we are looking into the issues you raised, perhaps we should also find out how much our government has squandered in tax breaks to foreign firms in the name of ‘free market’ economics, and precisely when we intend to reep the rewards of the resulting profits.
Every donation, very loan, every grant received is given with explicit or implicit demands for some tangible benefit economic benefit for the donor country. we should not be so naive as to think that such gifts are manner from heaven. We should be more careful about protecting national resources for the nation’s future and that means scrutinising such issues in detail.
I think this is the time we should usher in the people who will build the nation and people who thinking of putting the state in dabtes.We get our own resouces why import.
Me nuh go inna Babylon Kingdom fi beg no bread! Jah bless Africa wit de most fertile soil, so weh dem want fi fertilise? Me nuh trust dem.
I would say at least the taxes am paying here are being put to good use. But, I am very disappointed that 44 years of independence this govt. is still ‘importing’ fertiliser.
It’s only 6 months ago when the late president and you, Magande, were here and we spent almost 30 minutes talking about revamping NCZ.
I am just left to wonder what’s going on in your brain, Phew!
Lord have mercy….
guys forget magande, what are the ingredients of fertilizer so i can go and make it myself?
Why cant the govt involve the japanese in running NCZ coz these guys produce a lot of urea world over and instead of talking of fertilizer hand outs during elections, such will be a thing of the past
#22, Tiyende pamozdi, where are u?
CHE GUEVARA, ndi pa Kanagawa Pref., mudala. Ngaimwe?
i am dispointed with this people all lot of this money just on rural area. when we have poor road,poordraing,garbag on street. when are we go to improve this area its time for by-election. when and the time this people improve the country just look at southafrica it is one the countrys that is development on it on.we zambias we are just look people come and steal the man power.let us stand for the right.look out for this people so called polition.
How many scientists, Chemists, pharmisists( wizards), proffessors and Doctors do we have in Zambia.
Yet, yet we fail to produce alternative inputs.
Education without goals!
Come next year this time, if I dont come up with an alternative solution, I will throw my Msc Diploma into the bin.
yeeeeeeeeeee ba Anonymous
From which country is the fertilizer comming from