Southern Province Minister, Edify Hamukale has expressed disappointment with the slow pace at which some banks in the area are activating Electronic Voucher cards (E-Voucher) for farmers to access farming inputs.
Dr. Hamukale is concerned that only 21, 047 out of the 39, 814 farmers in the province who made their deposits have had their E-Voucher cards activated, a situation that has further slowed down the redemption of cards.
ZANIS reports that the Minister was speaking during a media briefing at his office in Choma today.
Dr. Hamukale has further called on the financial institutions to speed up the process as farming is a time-bound activity which should not be delayed.
Meanwhile, the minister has disclosed that the province through its agro-dealers has sufficient stock of farming inputs which include fertilizer, maize seed and legumes.
The government has no money that is why even last year’s e-vouchers are not yet. it is simple and straight forward.
In Shibuyunji district of Lusaka province, the thieving civil servants (district agriculture) have connived with Agro-dealers to dupe the innocent farmers. Apart from paying the K400.00. They are making them contribute K60.00 on top, meaning that they contribute K460.00 initial contribution. Not only that, they are told that of the K2,100.00 on the voucher the K100 will go towards insurance. Thus the total contribution is K160.00 for each farmer. Meaning that of the 2500 plus farmers would have contributed a total amount of K400,000.00.
Not only that the DACO representative went even further to tell the farmers that when collecting inputs from the Agro dealers, its mandatory that they collect seeds that the DACO office has specified. This is to be done regardless of whether one has…
In Shibuyunji district of Lusaka province, the thieving civil servants (district agriculture) have connived with Agro-dealers to dupe the innocent farmers. Apart from paying the K400.00. They are making them contribute K60.00 on top, meaning that they contribute K460.00 initial contribution. Not only that, they are told that of the K2,100.00 on the voucher the K100 will go towards insurance. Thus the total contribution is K160.00 for each farmer. Meaning that of the 2500 plus farmers would have contributed a total amount of K400,000.00.
Not only that the DACO representative went even further to tell the farmers that when collecting inputs from the Agro dealers, its mandatory that they collect seeds that the DACO office has specified. This is to be done regardless of whether one has…