After a long wait farmers whose Electronic –voucher(E-voucher) cards
had not been activated have finally started accessing farming inputs
in Chipata District of Eastern Province.
This was after Government loaded their cards with the required money.
The farmers were on Wednesday afternoon seen queuing up at some banks
finalizing the process.
Mabvuto Lungu and Florence Mbawo, who are the farmers, thanked
Government for ensuring that they get their inputs.
They however expressed disappointment that they had to go through a
lot of sufferings, including demonstrating to have their cards
activated.
And Zambia National Farmers Union(ZNFU) Regional Coordinator Virgil
Malambo who went to check the situation at one of the banks also
confirmed that Government had deposited the required money and farmers
would access their fertilizer.
Mr Malambo said it was disheartening that some farmers who deposited
their money in December were still unable to access farming inputs
because their accounts have no money up to now.
He also emphasized that Government must put in place mechanisms that
would ensure that in future farmers were not subjected to the
sufferings they have gone through during this farming season.
Chipata District Commissioner Kalunga Zulu said that the district has
received about K18 million to clear the slightly over 10, 000 farmers
whose E-voucher cards had not yet been activated.
He emphasized that Government would work had to meet the target of
clearing all farmers.
Mr Zulu said the biggest challenge has been the poor network, which
was affecting electronic money transfers between the bank branches in
Lusaka and Chipata.
He thanked farmers for the patience, but made a strong appeal that in
future, farmers should resolve challenges through dialogue with
Government.
And the Ministry of Agriculture has warned cooperative leaders who
were holding on to e-voucher cards belonging to farmers that it was an
offence.
Chipata District Agriculture Coordinator Michael Ngulube said that
e-voucher cards were personal documents which were supposed to be kept
by owners.
Mr Ngulube said that cooperative leaders who were holding on to the
cards risk being arrested.
He was responding to complaints from some farmers that some
cooperative leaders have withheld their cards for unknown reasons.
Mr Ngulube has encouraged any farmer, whose card has been withheld to
report the matter to police.
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Do not call such jokers farmers. These are parasites with “boma iyanganepo” mentality. What will they do with the fertilizer when maize is at tussling level.
No wonder their yields still fall below 2 tonnes/ hectare.
Farmer who are serious have long weaned themselves from FISP nonsense.
Excellent Observation
This is truly the joke of the year!
In any other country the Minister of Agriculture would be FIRED or hounded out of office for something like this! Gross incompetence and negligence!
What are these farmers going to do now? Planting time was THREE MONTHS AGO! When our “Minister” was enjoying a holiday with her tomboy in the US!
These incompetent thieves should not only be fired, they shoul be JAILED! This is CRIMINAL!
We need a serious Agricultural revolution, a Minister who knows what agriculture is all about.
They thanked government for ensuring that farm inputs are delivered late to them, in Africa people literally throw themselves on the ground when a politician puts up a simple borehole in their community using money from the treasury.
No teacher, no professor anywhere is thanked for coming late to deliver lessons to students, despite valid reasons.