By Isaac Zulu
PF presidential aspirant Greyford Monde has charged that the agriculture sector under the UPND government is in Intensive Care Unit.
Monde, who once served as agriculture minister the Edgar Lungu led Patriot Front administration, has cited the late delivery of farming inputs, the reported rationing of fertiliser and the removal of beneficiaries on the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) as some of the thorny issues that have made the agriculture sector a disaster this farming season.
“The whole agriculture sector this season is in ICU. There is nothing to talk about. There is nothing that has happened apart from the same promises. They told us that what PF provided; the four bags of fertiliser and 10kg seed per farmer was too small for a farmer to thrive and come out of that category of small scale and peasant farmer. And they said they will be giving eight bags of fertiliser per farmer. Today where we are we will ignore what they said, we want to see what they have done,” Monde explained in an interview. “Now they are saying they are giving six bags of fertiliser per farmer, but in real terms people are sharing the bags of fertiliser. We are now hearing that a cooperative of 150 people has been given 30 bags of fertiliser to share amongst themselves. This is on record. We have heard how people are sharing fertiliser in medas… not even a 25kg. How do you describe such a situation? The agriculture sector under the UPND government in Zambia has gone ICU. It is a complete disaster! What we need is to continue looking for more ventilators and breathing machines to resuscitate the agriculture sector.”
He also said that the price of fertiliser has doubled from the time PF got out of government.
“Those that have money they want to buy fertiliser but they can’t find the quantity they are looking for because there’s no enough stock on the market. And in instances where they find the commodity because they are in the new dawn government they expect the commodity to be at K250, as promised by the UPND. But the price of fertiliser is at K1,200 which is twice the price at which PF left fertiliser at. And farmers are the ones suffering,” Monde said, who also served as Itezhi-tezhi member of parliament.
And Monde urged the UPND government not to politicise national food security and health.
“Under the PF we had about 1.2 million beneficiaries on FISP. Today they have reduced the number by 5,000. This is retrogressive. They have removed beneficiaries that are perceived to be PF sympathisers from the FISP. And they have said that they have removed civil servants from the list of FISP beneficiaries. But civil servants get paid K5,000 per month. And if they are to do just a lima, they will need four bags of fertiliser – two basal two top dressing. And with the price at K1,200 can they afford? For me who know how our people struggle I feel sad,” said Monde. “And I talk about this with a very deep heart of sorrow. We cannot politicise agriculture. Never! You can politicise other issues not food security and health. If they have provided drugs in health facilities we would have commended them. But there are no medicines in public health facilities and people are just being given prescriptions, which they are now calling call outs.”
