The government has announced that the collection of inputs under the Farmers Input Support Programme (FISP) will commence on Thursday, November 10, 2022 across the country.
Minister of Agriculture Reuben Mtolo said the programme is progressing very well as the disbursement of the inputs to all the depots in the districts across the country has reached 55 percent as per suppliers’ reports.
Mr Mtolo stated that the depots are opening up for all the famers to collect their inputs across the country but encouraged selected beneficiaries to deposit their money as soon as possible.
“We encourage the famers to utilise the inputs for the intended purpose and avoid selling and exporting the inputs. We can assure you that monitoring measures have been put in place to ensure that the subsided farmers’ inputs are not abused,’’ he said at a media briefing in Lusaka today.
And Mr Mtolo has said allegations that the number of beneficiaries for the 2022 and 2023 FISP programme has been reduced are false.
He said the targeted number of beneficiaries remains the same, which is over one million farmers using the direct input support programme modality.
“Government has procured over 300,000 metric tons of fertilizer at the total cost of over 369 million dollars and over 10,000 metric tons of maize seed, 12 thousand metric tons of soya bean seed and over 10 thousand metric tons of groundnut seed,” he said.
The Minister of Agriculture revealed that the government spent K1.7 billion on procuring seed and distributing it to all the districts across the country.
Mr Mtolo said each farmer will be entitled to a pack, which constitutes six bags of fertiliser and one bag of maize seed weighing 10 kilograms (kgs).
He added that each recipient will receive either one bag of legume namely 20 kgs of groundnuts or 25 kgs of soya beans.
He also disclosed that the farmers who have benefited from FISP for over 20 years will be removed from the programme gradually in order to leave room for new beneficiaries.
Hon. Reuben Mutolo, is this another of your ‘soon’? Should our famers finally go and camp at the district DACO offices? Is it true every head will get 6 bags??? PF was paya farmer. I don’t yet have a name extension for your party, because the UPND hides in the New Dawn as if there is anything that has dawned so far.
First you said it’s on Tuesday now you are saying it’s tomorrow Thursday. You are behaving like Mushimba of PF and zambia airways launch where he kept on changing dates.
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Chipante pante at its best ????
And it will be February 2023 for the farmer to get his pack. Being poor is very bad. It is better to buy on your own.