By Isaac Zulu
Central Province permanent secretary Milner Mwanakampwe has said that anyone that will be found selling government subsidised farming inputs will sternly be dealt with.
Speaking in an interview, Mwanakampwe said that individuals mandated to distribute farming inputs to vulnerable but viable farmers under the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) should ensure that subsidised fertiliser reach the intended beneficiaries.
He said that government will not tolerate public service workers that will engage in the pilferage of farming inputs.
“Just a word of caution to the district agricultural coordinators, camp agricultural officers and extension officer in Central Province that we will not allow the business as usual approach of misappropriating farming inputs or selling of fertiliser meant for vulnerable but viable farmers. And I would like to echo the words of the chief marketing officer of this country, His Excellency President Hakainde Hichilema, that any of us that will be involved in the pilferage of farming inputs will be sternly dealt with. If they are found engaging in such, they are on their own,” Mwanakampwe said. “Similarly, individuals who will be buying government subsidised fertiliser from small scale farmers who are beneficiaries of FISP at give away prices will be arrested. And I would like to warn farmers that are on FISP that we will not tolerate the business as usual approach of them selling farming inputs to brief case buyers. And that is the more reason why government has been capturing the face of the farmer so that we make follow ups to find where this farmer has been cultivating his or her field and planting seeds.”
He said that the tendency by farmers of selling subsidised farming inputs is defeating government’s FISP objective of ensuring that small holder farmers graduate from the programme so that another group of beneficiaries can be enlisted after three years.
“In Central Province we have 28,164 beneficiaries on the Farmer Input Support Programme this farming season. And it is envisaged that after three years this group will graduate from the FISP programme so another 28,000 small scale farmers can be enrolled on the list of beneficiaries so that the agriculture sector can significantly contribute to the country’s economy,” Mwanakampwe said.
He applauded the district agricultural coordinators for “cleaning up the list of FISP beneficiaries so that the intended recipients get the subsidised farming inputs.”
“I know that the exercise to clean up the list of FISP beneficiaries was a tedious one. And so on behalf of His Excellency President Hakainde Hichilema we would like to commend all the DACOs in the Province for putting in extra efforts in ensuring that the intended beneficiaries receive the farming inputs. And I would like to appeal to our small scale farmers to remain calm because by the first week of December they would have received all their farming inputs,” said Mwanakampwe.
