The Ministry of Community Development and Social Services has increased the number of beneficiaries under the rain fed Food Security Pack (FSP) programme in North- western province from 9,799 in the previous season to 12,893 this season.
North-Western Province Deputy Permanent Secretary Luckson Mulumbi says the increase is aimed at enhancing the fight against poverty which he says is not only the responsibility of the government alone but requires the participation of every citizen.
Mr Mulumbi was speaking in Solwezi when he flagged off the distribution of farming inputs under the Food Security Pack programme for the 2025/2026 farming season.
The deputy PS said FSP remains a game changer in terms of transforming people’s lives and reducing poverty and vulnerability in communities.
“I wish to emphasise that the Food Security Pack programme is a flagship carrier of the department as it is a game changer in terms of changing people’s livelihoods, “he said.
He urged the beneficiaries not to sell the inputs but utilise them and help the programme meet its objective of reducing poverty and vulnerability levels in communities.
Speaking earlier, Provincial Community Development Officer, Kondwani Munyeka said the Ministry has devised new guidelines that will see beneficiaries benefiting for three years from the previous two years.
“Beneficiaries will pay back for the first two years and the third year will be a graduation bonus for the beneficiaries as they will go with whatever will be given to them,” Mr. Munyeka said.
He indicated that beneficiaries who will fail to pay back in the first or second year of being on the programme will be dropped and replaced.
“These paybacks are not meant for the government, but for the communities where they are coming from,” he added.
Mr Munyeka said each beneficiary will receive two x 50 kilogram bags of Compound D fertilizer, two x 50 kilogram bags of Urea, a 10 kilogram bag of maize seed and a 10 kilogram bag of either beans or groundnuts.
Speaking on behalf of the beneficiaries, Eshiloni Mutobe thanked the government for increasing the number of beneficiaries and also for adding an extra fertilizer bag of Urea which has been a plea of the beneficiaries.
“We appreciate the government for listening to our cry and adding another bag of Urea to make it two and for also giving us another year of being on the programme. We shall deliver and not disappoint our government which is so supportive of us,” Mr Mutobe said.
The FSP programme is one of the social protection programmes aimed at empowering vulnerable but viable farmer households with skills and farming inputs so as to reduce poverty at household level.
