Good Morning Dear Friends, Today, I have decided to respond to your numerous queries on the status of the Farmer Input Support Programme [FISP]. I wish to share with you that the FISP for the 2013/2014 farming season has been steadily progressing across the country. The FISP was allocated a total budget of K499 billion for the year 2013. With this budget our Government had planned to procure inputs to support 900,000 beneficiary farmers during the 2013/2014 farming season. Out of this, 659,000 farmers were planned to be supported under the conventional FISP while 241,000 farmers were supposed to have been supported through the Electronic Voucher System in ten (10) pilot districts. The initial quantity of D Compound fertilizer to be procured for FISP was 70,726.7 metric tonnes from Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia (NCZ). This quantity did not include quantities for the ten (10) districts that were initially planned to pilot the Electronic Voucher System. In view of this, NCZ was later awarded a contract to produce and supply an extra 25,599.40 metric tonnes D-Compound fertilizer in order to cater for the initially left out districts. I am happy to report that as of 16th January 2014 NCZ had produced and delivered across the country a total of 96,328.62 metric tonnes of D-Compound representing 100% of the contracted quantity. This goes to confirm that our Government’s decision to revive or recapitalize NCZ was CORRECT and of enormous benefit to the Zambian people. And as of 19th January 2014, our Government had distributed 63% of Urea fertilizer to farmers in various part of the country. I wish to acknowledge that the distribution of imported fertilizers to farmers for the 2013/2014 farming season has had some logistical challenges resulting in delays to distribute to the districts and some damages. However, we will ensure that the remaining farmers receive their fertilizer as a matter of urgency. For 2014, our focus will be to continue the recapitalization of the NCZ and investing in the crop diversification programme as well as to restructure FISP with the aim of providing inputs to our small scale farmers on time and better targeting. MCS- 23/01/14 President Michael Sata
Posted on: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 06:07:24 +0000
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