Friday, March 29, 2024

FISP is a failed project-Dora Siliya

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Minister of Agriculture Dora Siliya
Minister of Agriculture Dora Siliya
GOVERNMENT has declared the Farming Input Support Programme (FISP) a failed project because most farmers for whom it was intended turned the programme into a social cash transfer.

And Agriculture Minister Dora Siliya revealed that more than 7000 ghost farmers had been removed from the beneficiaries list which saw government pay a lot of money to non-existent farmers across the country.

Ms Siliya said while the FISP programme was meant to help vulnerable and small scale farmers graduate into commercial businesses which were eventually weaned off, the programme had been reduced to a social cash transfer project hence its failure to meet its original objectives.

Speaking in Parliament yesterday, Ms Siliya said most FISP beneficiaries had failed to graduate and be weaned and had continued to return to the government programme for inputs year after year.

“The FISP programme has become a failed project and government is seriously relooking at the programme. Last year, more than 7000 ghost farmers were removed from the FISP list which had seen government pay a lot of money to non-existent farmers. FISP was supposed to turn farmers into business venture so that the beneficiaries could graduate to commercial farmers and be weaned off the programme. But as it turns out, the beneficiaries have turned the programme into a social cash transfer to which people continue to return,” Ms Siliya said.

Ms Siliya said it did not make sense that government had continued to pump in money into the FISP programme and buying the maize from the farmers at a higher price so that the beneficiaries could make profit but that had not helped to make the farmers graduate.

She explained that government had also been paying the Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia (NCZ) to manufacture fertilizer which was being given to farmers under the FISP programme yet the programme was not helping the beneficiaries to grow.

Ms Siliya said the agriculture FISP programme was not a social welfare programme but a business which was meant to have graduate.

“The FISP programme was supposed to help farmers with the potential to grow but as it turns out, it has stopped making any economic sense as shown by the fact that some farmers who are the beneficiaries are still failing to raise the K400 deposit fees to access inputs,” Ms Siliya said.

34 COMMENTS

    • This is simply Absurd she is so keen on saying everything that is wrong about FISP and yet she has not given the alternative … I have always said Dora has a very disruptive strategy whichever Ministry she goes to …Radar contract, Sale of Zamtel and now FISP her solution is to always STOP status quo never how to improve it or find efficiencies … FISP hasnt failed its the management of it like most things in Zambia.

    • Haven’t we heard that Zambia has been producing bumper maize harvests for the last 10 or so Donkey yrs, thanks to FISP!!! Now FISP is the problem……..!! Well Dora, tell us your plan B, kabili….!!!

    • The ghost beneficiaries are really PF created ones as a way of stealing from GRZ. The fertilisers and seed are then sold to commercial farmers at full price by PF insiders. Dollar Syria can only say this because she is an outsider.

  1. So now FISP is scrapped. PF looking for more money to steal? Or to pay the kaloba on the Eurobonds that they have already stolen?

    Fuel prices UP! Zesco charging consumers for load shedding!

    And Lungu spending millions on his travels.

    What has happened to Zambia? Is this what we voted for?

  2. Any sensible individual should applaud this serious pronouncement as FISP was a 3year rolling program where farmers graduated but subsequent govts used it as a political tool. Why should farmers continue receiving seed and fertiliser year in year out? Thats being wastful and lets refrain even at individual level to spend money we dont have. Kudos Minister even though you are not my favourite. lets call a spade a spade, scrap it.

  3. This is the PROBLEM I HAVE WITH THE WAY WE ADDRESS PROBLEMS IN ZAMBIA! So FISP is a FAILURE so WHAT IS ALTERNATIVE? So there were 7,000 GHOST FARMERS, WHO WAS GETTING THE FERTILIZER- WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO TO THEM? The GREATER PROBLEM is that as a NATION WE HAVE FAILED TO MAKE USE OF ICT TO IMPROVE THE MANAGEMENT OF OUR AFFAIRS. Those Farmers on FISP have NRCs and FINGURE PRINTS. With modern technology one CAN EASILY TELL WHO GOT WHAT and WHO is WHO but awee sure… it just GROPING IN THE DARK!! DESPITE HAVING EDUCATED MINISTERS and CIVIL SERVANTS, we are still LIKE in the 60s!! BUT PLIZ BE CAREFULL NOT TO KILL THE SECTOR AND ENDANGER FOOD SECURITY with your GYMNASTIC!!

  4. Guys,
    This the precursor to the IMF coming back to strangle you.
    Please read between the lines.
    UPND should mobilize transport to bring peasant farmers from the provinces and storm state house.
    The Commander in Chief must be reminded that HE IS A SERVANT OF THE PEOPLE!

    • Unfortunately our dear Lungu will not even be in State House!

      He will be travelling somewhere by private jet, staying in five star hotels at Taxpayers expense, collecting massive allowances, drinking Jamesoni by the crateload, and dancing himself to happiness for having stolen an election for dull Zambians too docile to object!

      Just shut up and suffer. You had your chance to change it, and you blew it!

  5. Let’s please discuss issues sensibly. Every minister of agriculture since FISP began speaks of graduating from peasant/small scale farmer to commercial and none of them has provided a calculation to show how this could be achieved. With 2 bags of compound d and 2 of urea plus 10 kg maize seed please show me how anyone even under very efficient management can graduate to a commercial farmer even after 10 years let alone after a year! This ought to be a permanent subsidy for the intended beneficiaries. What needs to be done is like someone has said is to ICT to gather necessary information to have a reliable database of all deserving poor people forward which FISP is meant i e targeting. The ghost beneficiaries aren’t really ghost beneficiaries. These are those that are able to pay for…

  6. Am I not getting something right as regards the agriculture sector? It seems the country that was Northern Rhodesia did not have a myriad of problems as started being experienced a few years after changing name to Zambia with problems in agriculture worsening under successive post Kaunda management! Too much adaptive experimentation dislodging what Mt Makulu Research Station was respected for! One “Dununa Reverse” to colonial management go agriculture would be a positive reversal of what is currently being applied!

  7. Comment:SPOT ON DORA. NOW YOU ARE TALKING.IT’S NOT ONLY THE GHOST FARMERS ,IT’S ALSO THE SUPPLIERS. ..Y IS IT THAT THEY BANKROLL THE PF CAMPAIGNS? ??THEY BANKROLL THE PARTY AND THEN OVERPRICE THEIR COMMODITIES BY MILLIONS OF DOLLARS ,INSHORT THEY ARE ALL A BUNCH OF THIEVES…GET RID OF THE CORRUPTION IN THIS SÈCTOR THEN GET RID OF FISP.

  8. HOW LONG MUST WE WAIT FOR MINISTERIE AGRICULTURE TO UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPT OF FARM BLOCKS.
    DA PROJECTS MANAGEMENT ZAMBIA IS THE ONLY PROFESSIONAL CONSULTING GROUP IN ZAMBIA WHO UNDERSTAND THE MECHANICS OF >>FARM BLOCKS> GOVERNMENT MUST STOP …LAND GRABBING !!!

    SHARE BLOCK FARM PROJECTS THE ONLY LEGAL FRAMEWORK TO ADRESS THE CHALLENGES REGARDING
    MANAGEMENT & EXPERTICE TO GET MONEY TO THE >>>SMAL-RURAL FARMERS.

    CONTACT ; [email protected]

  9. Another clear indication of lack of coordination and direction (Chipantepante) by this government. Bearly a few months ago the former minister was singing the praise of the e voucher system and how it will be rolled out to all deserving farmers to ease logistics and also help them diversify. Now here is Dora saying scrap the whole thing after huge sums have been spent an the pilot, without even offering an alternative.

  10. As someone here has said, Dora is always trying to ‘reinvent the wheel’ in whichever ministry she goes to, perhaps because she considers herself smarter than all. Sometimes its best to work with what you have and try and refine.

  11. It is just full-on confusion now: There are Ministers who skipped one party to another, and one government to another. In one they praised non.sense – in another they decided the non.sense they praised was truly non.sense. See people what you are allowing in your country? Utter drivel! Focus!

  12. There is something i do not seem to understand, maybe someone can help me understand. FISP worked very well under MMD and we had generally good harvests over the years. MMD was able to sustain this program besides fuel, electricity and many more subsidies without us the generally citizenry feeling a single pitch of it. besides all these, the economy was doing fine, exchange rate was stable, development was steadily going on, our foreign cash reserves were high etc. my question is, where was MMD getting all the money to do these things. question 2. why is PF failing to sustain everything?

    • @ Vizungu

      Q3. Why was MMD removed from power..?

      Answer3. Because Zambians were so dull they believed Satas LIES! 90 days new Constitution, more money in the pocket.

      And Lungu has continued with the LIES!

  13. The current National Development Plan supports Agriculture. That the country should not depend on Mining only. Now, how is the government going to do it with the scrapping of FISP? Someone to answer to this.

  14. FISP has been giving farmers 2 x 50Kg of basal dressing, 2 x 50Kg top dressing fertilizers and 10kg maize seed as the main inputs per season. This package is only enough to plant half a hectare which will produce just about enough to provide a family of about 10 with a year’s supply of food. Ba Minister what this level of support cannot do is to move a farmer from one level to another i.e. from subsistence to commercial. Because of this program and the marketing role that the Food Reserve Agency have played Zambia has for more than 2 decades been the only country in the sub-region that is producing enough maize to feed itself and even exporting. Dora must consult the previous Ministers and the technocrates in her Ministry to understand and appreciate this program. What we want to hear…

  15. Politicians themselves made the program to fail when they realized that they can gain votes out of FISP. Instead of dealing with farmers that had potential to grow, the Govt went flat out distributing inputs to every villager including those with no interest in commercial or semi-commercial farming. This reduced the amount for serious emerging commercial farmers who initially were the targets of the program. By limiting input availability to these farmers, the program got frustrated outright.

    In the next program if at all there will be any, I advise the policy makers to make radical changes in approach to one which will be more objective with proper achievable targets. I recommend the following in the next program

    1. Objectively identify emerging farmers with potential to grow…

  16. No NO madam Minister..!!

    FISP is a good programme if managed properly according to its objective.

    But its your PF which has turned it into cash Transfer coz of political interference leading to corruption,greediness,theft etc.

    Anyhow, I dont expect much from incompetent government and its vision less leader.

    As for you, its just a name of Minister and benefits associated that motivates you. You know nothing about Agriculture.

  17. She is 100% correct, we can not have a situation where 15 years down the line the same farmers getting, inputs no improvements, no sign of graduating??? Sad, politics is killing us. Sad to have and hear some opposition parties telling people of Zambia during campaigns that they will increase the number of bags of fertilizer given to the farmers, Why????????? Where are you going to get the money. No mechanism to monitor the process. How do you explain the situation where the same farmers after harvesting the maize sell the maize to neighboring countries, brief case buyers buying this cheap maize and selling outside: who are we subsiding. Because of not educating these farmers on how much the government is spending, some of them even have the guts of appearing on TV telling or asking the…

  18. Lets be serious…..madam Dora you have just failed..just consult from people please…you are good at raising issues but all we need are solution pliz wat yo move

  19. Consultant reports inform policy decisions. please avoid greater damage to the agricultural policy of the country. It is not too late to request consultants to conduct monitoring and evaluation. The consultant will identify the shortcomings, their consequences, their causes and their solutions. There is no need for political interference.

  20. Yes politics aside this has been a bottomless pit. The chairman in my farming block has been changing membership with every government change. I failed to get even a single bag of in put so I just buy from the shops. Same story with Namboard.

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