About 74, 639 Farmers E-Voucher Cards for the 2017/2018 farming season have not been redeemed in Central Province.
Acting Provincial Agricultural Coordinator (PACO) Sylvester Mubanga, said this is out of the 100, 265 cards that were activated.
Speaking in an interview with ZANIS in Kabwe today, Mr. Mubanga said 130, 421 farmers made deposits amounting to K110, 196, 800 in the Province.
He said 25, 617 farmers e-voucher cards were successfully redeemed for the 2017/2018 farming season in Central Province.
Mr. Mubanga however, said it is difficult to arrive at the exact number of cards that have not been redeemed because apparently, farmers can use the same cards to swipe at any Automated Teller Machine (ATM) and get cash.
He also explained that a good number of farmers who made their deposits could not redeem inputs because banks did not activate their cards on time.
Mr. Mubanga further said most of the challenges that characterized the E-Voucher Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) hinged on technological lapses, the slow pace by banks to load the cards and the absence of agro service providers in some districts.
He revealed that currently, all the districts in the Province are compiling reports on the e-voucher FISP with a view of generating accurate data.
He however, singled out Kapiri Mposhi as the best performing district and Ngabwe as the worst performing in the Province.
ba pf, is there anything they will ever do right and which will benefit the zambians? one thing which is clear as daylight is that the r.a.t.s in the p.o.t.s benefited from this failed voucher system. the farmers and the ordinary zambians have lost hagain. i am sure the voters have been bewitched such that they keep on voting for plunderers of national resources and reduce the number of votes to be rigged. come 2021, you will see the bewitchment. they will vote for plunderers and reduce the win by upnd and enable the riggers to rig the difference of 100,000 votes by which upnd will be leading by.
What happened to prayer? Why should this happen in God’s favourite country on the planet?
REALLY LAUGHABLE IN AFRICA ITS NOT EASY TO ACTIVATE AN E-VOUCHER HAHAHAHAHA..BUT A SIM CARD IS ACTIVATED WITHIN 24HRS YABA NO WONDER I WILL NEVER GO BACK TO ZAMBIA LET ME ENJOY MY OLD JAPANESE WOMAN
This is some advice to the overpaid and overstayed technocrats such as non performing PS Shawa in the ministry of Agric. Scrap this Evoucher nonsense, the cost can be transferred to reducing the overall price of farm inputs by making them zero tax rated, removing the 5 percent import and excise duty on fertilizer, reducing taxes and license fees etc to firms dealing in agro inputs. This will collectively reduce the cost of farm inputs to all farmers- we need a situation whereby fertilizer will be affordable to all farmers whether they are cooperative members or not at a price of K100 to K150. Any agro dealer selling inputs at a higher price than govt recommended should be reported and dealt with accordingly. Simple, govt saves money- inputs become more readily available- but sadly people…
Ctn…sadly people are not open to progressive ideas- K100-150 for a 50kg bag of fertilizer across the board, this can be done. Last year the govt spent K2 billion (USD200 million)on the evoucher. Those funds could easily be saved by doing away with this costly exercise and just cutting the taxes and general cost of bringing the inputs to the farmer in the supply chain. The govt would save and the farmers collectively as a whole would also benefit.