Ms Siliya said that the government spends 1.2 billion Kwacha per year on FISP and yet over 75 percent of the farmers participating in the programme remains poor.
She said as a new Minister of Agriculture, she has found it extremely difficult to know that FISP consumes as much 1.2 billion Kwacha per year.
Ms Siliya said this when she opened a meeting dubbed “Dialogue on achieving a Green Revolution in Zambia through Zambia Plus” in Lusaka ,.
Ms Siliya said that it will be difficult for Zambia to attain a Green Revolution if there are no policy changes in the agricultural sector aimed at addressing bottlenecks.
Ms. Siliya said current agricultural interventions favour the growing of maize and yet agriculture is broad.
She said the ministry has called for an indaba for stakeholders in the agriculture sector in order to change the course of direction.
Ms Siliya said the agricultural sector’s contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product which is estimated at 10 percent is too low given the country’s potential.
The Minister also took a swipe at the Food Reserve Agency for concentrating on buying maize as though the institution was an agency of millers.
Government spends 1.2 billion Kwacha per year on FISP and yet over 75 percent of the farmers participating in the programme remains poor.
She said as a new Minister of Agriculture, she has found it extremely difficult to know that FISP consumes as much 1.2 billion Kwacha per year.”
So does the struggling Zambian Taxpayer! How much of this is actually reaching farmers?
And how much is disappearing in CORRUPTION?
MMD is out to attack PF, the other day Mutati’ personal secretary Nakachinda demanded clean up of ministers. Today this MMD government spokeswoman also add more questions.
Now we will hear PF government removing subsidies from farmers.
Maybe ask Lubinda
What do you expect when you have a corrupt Zambia farmers union?
FISP was a sad joke and a cheap campaign gimmick from day one. I hope this woman is not merely window dressing, but has woken up and stopped believing manufactured lies whose only purpose is to prolong their stay in power and not alleviate poverty.
Most of the inputs are sold by the ungrateful recipients for cash.
If you really want to help the fisherman, don’t give them fish, teach them how to catch fish.
If you truely want to help a farmer, show them how to farm. Handouts is the best way of keeping the poor in poverty.
Can’t take her serious regardless of what comes out of her.
This Dora. Remember that Dora ?
Thanks
BB2014
The other problem is that a significant portion of the FISP fertilizer ends up on the commercial market repackaged and being sold by people connected to the system.
Zambians are complicated people when it comes to
ImProving their lives. I feel they almost enjoy poverty
How about the LAP GREEN ZAMTEL SCANDAL> HOW MUCH DID IT GOBBLE? BA SILIYA STOP TREATING PEOPLE LIKE FOOLS. HOW CAN YOU BE SURPRISED AT YOUR OWN CORRUPTION?
She is a very intelligent young woman if you only listen to her and not be blinded by prejudice.
I’ve met her and she is thoughtful unlike some haters.
PF Government is on the right path to development. Dora, good observations and timely pronouncements.
Let not the negative sentiments of the fire worshipping Free Masson cult UPND and its arsonists discourage our efforts.
@Kudos, thank the MMD ministers, looks like Mutati, Dora and lunatic who walked to solwezi, are only ministers working. The rest are busy corrupting ACC to save their asses.
This initiative was first copied from the UPND by Levy but has been used as a vehicle for theft by PF.Its in the PF time these inputs are failing to reach farmers maybe with the rented MMD heads things mighty move.Kaya.
@chishimba kambwili alias skull Halloween Mr Kudos, how does the UPND come in. Your hatred for UPND and HH is driving you insane. Just wait and you will prove me wrong or right. The MMD is like a stalk-borer in the PF. By the time you are through with your hatred of the UPND and HH, RB and his MMD will have ejected you from power.
@Dan biloko, this system has been with us since Unip. Upnd are just babies so you’re telling us that they planned this even before the party was born?
No wonder lungu chose mmd to wipe his mess the woman has made valid observations
MMD is doin the home work fo pf cadres who dont kno the difference btwin a spoon and a spade to them they av the same use.dora valid observations show this hooligans how its done
Kikikikiki Lmao! Mbwazo good observation mate! yaba
The CEO at FRA is corrupt and immoral he hides behind being physically challenged but he is a shark when it comes to ill gotten money and women let ACC visit him and let ZRA check income against tax returns he will go inside
If an FRA officer incharge of Petuake district can walk into Toyota Zambia showroom and buy a Hilux Jeep with cash and drive off…what of at the top!!
Madam minister you should be serious, how do you expect the farmers not to be poor when you announce a low very low flow price for maize. Its your government to blame.
Be ready to buy expensive mealie meal first before you talk of farmers getting their worth.
@Kudos! Your hate for HH will never develop this country iwe c!kala chawiso. What has HH got to do with what Dora has said! Your PF is busy destroying the economy and you are there seriously cheering them! For now forget about HH, he is not in government and maybe he will never be but the fact is, you will never match him in terms of life time achievements and not anyone from your family will come close to what that man you hate with a passion has achieved. Like it or not but that’s a fact.
This FISP is a millstone around government’s neck. As usual farmers sell all their produce (sometimes at low prices) and they do not care even if they make extra to buy their own bags because they will get those bags again anyway. You would expect that there was a weaning system of reducing the bags provided each year to stimulate self-sufficiency and rationalization of prices but no. It is all prayers and rhetoric. Awe shuwa.
Let us find out a few things from this woman. How many bags of maize and seed are given to each small scale farmer? How much yield is expected from those bags? How many farmers have graduated from small to medium? Are they paid on time for their produce?
Remember my dear friends this are the last days because a devil is in control .what the devil wants it’s to distroy our peace !!!
Where does the devil pick up from your stupidity?
Leave that folly at your church!!
MMD minister are here to clean the mess which was created by PF. Sata knew that his ministers were useless and the reason he kept them that long no one know. ECL had to keep them on the fence no were near the core of zambian economic activities.
Maybe they should look for another MMD to place at the Tourism Ministry to assist these corrupt empty tins!!
JUST EMPLOY AGRICULTURE OFFICERS TO TEACH FARMERS
@7 kaputo davis, but HH has put himseld in the firing when he allowed GBM to turn him from a economics pretender to a donkey. Just look at the petition cases that he has lost, all ridiculous cases that should not have seen the inside of our courts in thd first place. Just look at his pronouncements, he speaks like someone who is not fit to be a presidential candidate.
As for Dora, younger sister is intelligent, she analyses situations in order to come up with solutions. Even UPND envy her, they would be happy to have her in UPND and and replace GBM as vice president, from eastern? Yes, UPND can easily “forget” what HH said recently about easterners in one of his unguarded fits of tribalism!
How does your comment improve the debate?
Mwina Zambia!
Why do they remain poor? Politics is the reason. There’s a man who’s been receiving fertilizer since I was kid and he’s still receiving. He was Chairman in Unip, he became chairman in mmd and now he’s not just chairman but also PF councillor. Bottom line we not have even a simple system to monitor the distribution.
Just like Charity Organisations!!
madam dora is very serious wth work, I know her very well. madam help us with agriculture loans so that we improve our economy, don’t listen to empty tins. pliz help us, how do we see you? lm a government worker with small salary and struggling with farming, if you can help us wth some funds, for pourtry. I have a 10hactor land which I was given by settlement office under kainamfumu settlement here in Solwezi.
Comment:Surely we appreciates the move by Dora because only women understands best things to do with food due to the fact that they are on the ground please give them room you will see wonders in the ruling Government. PEACE MAKER!!!
DORA IS VERY CORRUPT.
the problem is tht most statements just end up as pronouncements….at the end of the day nothing is done and criminals end up unpunished and the common man ends up even poorer.
THE PROBLEM IS THAT PF WILL TEACH THE NEW GUYS THE WAY OF SIPHONING FUNDS AND LATER THEY WILL BE SILENCED.
@14.1 Sauzande, my statement applies to UPND. If you are one of them, I am saying that you should not particiiate in the debate for yours is to spoil. The debate should be for those people who will engage with government at ALL its levels to find solutions to the economic challenges facing its people, and not those whose only objective is to create problems, or disrupt the work of hard working ladies like my sister Dora. Those who are still campaigning as presidential candidate and running mate for elections on 11 August 2016 are also excluded from the debate. Zambian Watchdog is the correct forum for their campaigns.
Now Sauzande, please shut up or give us your constructive views on Dora’s thought provoking statement.
Guys,
I have an ambitious plan to boost agriculture in Ndola Rural.
I plan to concentrate on the banks of the Kafulafuta River, in the vicinity of Miputu.
I’ll cultivate a 200m wide stretch from Miputu to the Kafue River, a distance of 15 kms, adjacent to the river and both the north and south banks. Water from the river will be used for flood irrigation through a series of furrows. This project will:
1) Empower Zambians
2) Shift the dependance away from mining
3) Be used to educate people of the Copperbelt through monthly open days, and
4) Be the platform to provide practical experience for university students studying agriculture
Siliya instead of making noise and castigating ZRA, just make changes and we shall see your work. Press statements won’t, the same way your government has allowed street vending is the with FISP, KK tried, Chiluba tried, Mwanawasa tried, RB, MS all these tried the farmers remain poor. You shall try as long as you are using the same methods you will fail. Market places are there but the vendors do not like formal things. If government thinks its helping citizens through FISP you lie, you are helping wrong people. The love hand outs and not work. Make them work not politically motivated programs the love such.
The fertilizer under FISP is sold by Agriculture officers on open markets and into Congo and Malawi. In Solwei there was a Mr. Sondashi who used to sale fertilizer to Lubumbashi through Kipushi.
YES MAIZE IS OUR STAPLE FOOD in Zambia and Sub-region. We are where we are because of good successive Maize food security plans.
While it is good to revisit FISP function & purpose, remain focused on Maize Production Mrs Agriculture Minister. The other crops are good for a balanced diet and must be promoted in their own capacity.
DO NOT LOSE YOUR HEAD YOU B*TCH!
@Tauya! U don’t kno where there’s Ministry of Agriculture? Its in lsk that’s where u find this journalist!
Overpoliticisation of nshima was curtailed by FTJ only to be re-introduced by a minority President LPM to garner rural votes. 10 commercial farmers the size of costain chilala can feed Zambia with this nshima and leave some for export to DRC & Malawi. This FISP is all about the politics winning rural votes. Voetsek ba galu imwe!
How many beneficiaries of the CEEC funds have grown their businesses and repaid their loans? And yet these are educated people capable of drawing up business plans! The Mwanakatwe’s are still owing yet you reward them, wife as cabinet minister, Husband CEO to run down Zamtel when he can’t keep afloat his Kantemba! And you expect villagers to be responsible with FISP? Only in a failed state like Zambia. We need a Jerry Rawlings with his firing squads!
Well observed though I expected solutions to the same question. The answer is to teach them how to farm
Liberalise maize production to market forces and you will see how the chilalas and boer farmers will till the land. Allow them gradually to export to DRC not raw maize but finished product (mealie meal). Peasants are simple villagers accustomed to poverty and handouts whether its chibuku or campaign Vitenge. You can’t force a horse to drink water let alone coerce carefree 2m villagers to feed 12 million urban dwellers. This experiment of handouts to unwilling emergent farmers has been tried since 1964 & that’s absolute madness! They are content with being peasants. Get this into your thick head. Sorry for for using thick but I can’t help it!
Peasantry or small scale farming involves scratching the earth with archaic farming methods. this type of farming was only meant for the subsistence of small households at village level. it’s absurd to even imagine that a nation of 15m people and more should rely on such methods to adequately feed its people .seriously the only farmers this continent has ever have are the Boers. FISP cannot graduate on hoes and picks.