AGRICULTURE MINISTER FLAGS OFF FISP INPUTS Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, Hon Wilbur Simuusa flagged off the 2013/14 FISP inputs distribution to Districts at NCZ in Kafue on Tuesday 13th May 2014. The Minister promised that all FISP ledged that all FISP inputs for the 2014/15 season will be delivered to all Districts by the end of July, targeting to finalize distribution to farmers by the end of August 2014. NCZ has been contracted to produce and supply 105,000 metric tons of compound D and the company has already produced 10,000 metric tons as of last Tuesday. However, going by the company’s daily production rate of 740 tons, NCZ will need at least 123 days minimum (4 months from now) to produce the remaining 91,000 metric tons of Compound D fertilizer. The Minister also informed the Nation that Government has increased the number of FISP beneficiaries from 900,000 to 1 million farming households. This will translate into 500,000 hectares of mostly maize and a bit of rice and sorghum as part of the Ministry’s crop diversification efforts. The Minister further informed the gathering at NCZ that his Ministry was working on measures to help improve productivity of farmers under FISP to above 3 tons per hectare, a target which may prove elusive at the current FISP inputs application rate per hectare and with type extension services currently in place. Government is also going to import about 50,000 metric tons of Urea on a Government-Government arrangement while the difference of about 51,000 metric tons Urea will be supplied by other local fertilizer companies. Government is also going to procure 10,000 metric tons of maize seed, 127 tons of rice seed, and 119 tons of sorghum seed.
Posted on: Mon, 19 May 2014 06:42:51 +0000
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