By KASONDE KASONDE –
GOVERNMENT has released over K23 million to settle the outstanding balance for the farmers that sold their maize to the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) in Northern Province.
Northern Province Permanent Secretary Elias Kamanga said Government had disbursed K23, 244,740 as the last installment for the farmers.
Mr Kamanga said 10,787 farmers in the province supplied their maize to FRA worth K76, 394,280.
He said FRA bought maize from 2,290 farmers in Kasama, 3,142 in Luwingu, 1,057 Mbala, 2, 055 Mporokoso, 715 in Mpulungu and 1,545 in Mungwi District in the 2016-2017 maize buying seasons.
Mr Kamanga commended the farmers for their patience with Government in the payments as it was still putting in place measures to ensure that going forward, farmers were paid for their maize within the shortest time possible.
“I want to inform all our farmers who sold their maize to FRA in the province that the Government has released the outstanding balance and the banks are paying out the monies,” Mr Kamanga said.
He said the Government would continue to ensure that the farmers received the necessary help so that they could continue to contribute to the national food basket.
Mr Kamanga also said distribution of farming inputs for the 2017-2018 farming season through the Electronic Voucher System (e-voucher) was going on smoothly and farmers had been collecting inputs.
He said agro-dealers had been trained and engaged for the distribution of farming inputs in the six districts to ensure delivery of the inputs on time as well as promote diversification by including other seeds other than maize.
Mr Kamanga said despite the country experiencing some dry spells, Northern Province had being receiving rainfall and was anticipating a bumper harvest.
Government has said that it has released all the money owed to farmers that supplied the FRA with maize, rice and soya beans.