Muchinga Province Minister Malozo Sichone says sustainable economic growth in the Province and the Country can be boosted through Agriculture.
Mr. Sichone says there is need for more resources to be drown towards the Agriculture Sector to enhance production capacity and productivity of small scale Farmers.
ZANIS reports that the Provincial Minister said at the just ended sixth Muchinga Province Agricultural, Tourism and Investment Show, which was held under the Theme “Promoting a Green Economy”.
This year`s theme emphasizes on promoting an economy that concentrates on reducing environmental risks and ecological insufficiency, because a green economy considers the environment in which it operates.
Mr. Sichone further says, government, through the Livestock Infrastructure Support Project, has been constructing livestock structures such as livestock slaughter facilities, dip tanks, livestock market centers, livestock laboratories in Mpika, Nakonde, Chinsali, Isoka ,and Mafinga districts to reduce the livestock disease burden and increase livestock population.
The Minister noted also that through CEEC , government has empowered a number of farmers in different fields as a way of value addition.
These fields include production of edible cooking oil, stock feed, beef, piggery, fish farming and poultry where employment creation for the local people will be achieved through these interventions.
The implementation of the Farmer Input Support E-voucher in 39 districts of the Country which included three districts from Muchinga Province.
He added that this year Government has plans to roll out the E-voucher system to all the districts in the Province.
“Government is working to address the challenges that were encountered in the E-voucher programme in the 2016/2017 season such as late distribution of cards and late activation of cards are being addressed so as to ensure a smooth run in the next season`s programme, he said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Sichone says the recently launched Second National Agriculture Policy by Minister of Agriculture Dora Siliya could not have come at a better time than this as it is closely aligned to the newly unveiled Seventh National Development Plan and Vision 2030.
The Second National Agriculture Policy has an objective of promoting sustainable use and management of natural resources and mainstreaming environmental and climate change in the Agricultural sector.
The Policy also seeks to address the various challenges faced in the Agriculture Sector such as over dependence on rain for crop production, limited capital and market access for small scale farmers and little value addition.
These are just payments to PF cadets.
You will find the same PF caders that had construction companies and got road contracts are now farmers accessing these loans or hand outs.
Tell us how many farmers are producing as a result of this intervention ??? Or you do not know as usual.
At every event “agriculture is the way to go” its been 6 years of pf government and have we gone forward? Ask yourself.
ECL is constzntly targeted but look at the pf performance since Sata came to power. ECL wishes he could take back his prophetic statement,, I have no vision for Zambia