Over 2000 farmers belonging to 38 cooperatives in Mansa in Luapula Province have not yet received Urea and D compound fertiliser.
Mansa District Agriculture Coordinator (DACO) David Kandanla told ZANIS that farmers who have not received Urea and D compound fertiliser are from 38 cooperatives in the district.
Mr. Kandanla said 1,988 farmers in 34 cooperatives, and 131 in other four cooperatives, have not yet received Urea and D compound fertiliser respectively.
He attributed the late distribution of fertiliser to a Mpika based supplier whom he said had been delaying loading of the commodity.
Mr. Kandanla said contracted transporters equally complained that the named supplier did not attend to them urgently leading to the delay in loading and delivering the fertiliser.
He said the delay to attend to transporters in time slowed down the delivery process.
The DACO further said the delay in fertiliser distribution had also been caused by a shortage of transporters adding that the same transporters who were supposed to collect fertiliser from Mpika have been contracted by the Food Reserve Agency (FRA).
He said transporters in most cases load maize from Mansa, go to Chambishi and then later travel to Mpika via Kapiri Mposhi.
The DACO said it was regrettable that there was a delay in fertilizer distribution adding that this could impact negatively on crop yield.
He explained that the initial target for the agriculture authorities in the district was to finish distributing farm inputs by November 29 last year.
Mr. Kandanla said although more than 300 agriculture cooperatives have received fertiliser, it was still undesirable that 34 have not received top dressing fertiliser while four cooperatives have also not received D compound fertiliser.
Meanwhile, panic has gripped affected farmers from 38 cooperatives which have not received fertiliser.
The farmers said they have started panicking because the crops were already showing signs of poor growth because of lack of urea fertiliser.
They said Government had repeatedly challenged farmers to work hard but said their efforts were being frustrated by delayed fertiliser distribution.
One of the farmers Fredson Mwiinga complained that the Officers from the Department of Agriculture in the district have not explained to the farmers why they were not distributing the fertiliser.
They said most of them came from far flung farming areas situated in Chembe, Matanda, Kundamfumu, Kalyongo, Malama, and Luo, among many others.
Pascal Kunda, another farmer complained that farmers from these rural areas have been travelling to the fertiliser shed hoping to be given fertiliser but to no avail.
Mr. Kunda said some farmers have been in Mansa for three days now adding that there was still no sign that fertiliser would be distributed.
The farmers appealed to Government to intervene and ensure that the 2,000 affected farmers got their fertiliser and participated in the production of another maize bumper harvest.
[ ZANIS ]
LT wrong English in title. Its supposed to be ‘2000 Farmers Still Await Fertiliser…..’
We need to work towards building the capacity of Cooperatives to transport the commodity by themselves. Where cooperatives have own trucks this would not be an issue because the District Unions would be in position to haul the commodity and distribute to their members. Government has created enough leverage/facilitation for this to happen and the system needs to pick it up quickly.
I thought this was a serious issue that needed govt to attend to immediately,I was in mansa in the last week of december,2010 and farmers complained about the same but nothing has still been done…WHAT IS GOING ON WITH BONA?THIS IS UNCALLED FOR AND GOVERNMENT SHOULD BE ASHAMED, DC NSAKASHA,PS CHIKWAKWA AND PF DEFECTOR MINISTER CHIMBAKA-WHAT IS YOUR DAMN PROBLEM?
Sad part is that the politicians are giving us a different story. I leave it at that and wait for the GRZ spokes person
distribution of fertilizer shouldn’t be such a big deal. things will change when you get a lot of private sector players taking part in the distribution agric inputs and marketing. Leaving Gov agents to go this will always results in inefficiencies.
Where is Gen Shikas?
Government should investigate the beneficiaries of the fertilizer support programme because it has been abused by some Agriculture Officers and some middle scale farmers who in their cooperatives register poor farmers that cant pay for the packs. The officers and the middle scale farmers get most of the fertilizer and either use it or sell it again. Very few poor peasant farmers are benefiting from the FSP. The government should institute investigations into the implementation of the FSP.