Farmers in Mkushi district in Central Province have expressed happiness with the pace at which the distribution of farming inputs through the electronic voucher system is being undertaken.
Speaking to ZANIS this afternoon, Mukula Simambwe a small scale farmer said he was excited that he has received his farming inputs in good time ahead of the farming season.
Mr. Simambwe said unlike politicising the e-voucher system, people should embrace it and be thankful that government has come to the aid of many farmers who otherwise could not afford to by the farming inputs.
He explained that instead of wasting time in criticising government, farmers should concentrate on farming activities in order to harvest good yields as a compliment towards government’s efforts to empower them.
And Howard Musanza another small scale farmer said he has realised a lot of progress in the e-voucher system from the time it was initiated to-date, adding that he has confident that the system will keep improving and the challenges it may have yesterday will be a thing of the past.
And Mkushi District Agriculture Coordinating Officer, Reuben Kabiti confirmed to ZANIS that farmers started redeeming their inputs on December 7th, 2018.
He said over 13,000 farmers from the initial targeted 17,094 farmers, were able to make deposits and that over 3,000 farmers have already redeemed their inputs.
However, Mr. Kabiti said there have been reports of agro-dealers refusing to release inputs to farmers until they receive payment from government.
“This is an illegal practice which can attract a penalty as they risk being de-registered”, he said.
Mr. Kabiti explained that the exercise was moving smoothly despite the mentioned challenge.
I didn’t face any problems. I checked my phone and found that money had been deposited. I went to a shop and ensured it had the commodities before redeeming my voucher. I got my items. Now only worried about the poor rains.