By JENNIPHER MUTOSHI –
THE Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) has called on the ministry of Agriculture to find an alternative source of urea fertiliser if the imports from Saudi Arabia are delaying.
ZNFU head of outreach and member services Coillard Hamusimbi said farmers had not received the top dressing fertiliser under the Farmer Input Programme (FISP) despite being promised to get the inputs by August 2014.
The Government is procuring 150,000 tonnes of urea fertiliser from Saudi Arabia in a bid to run away from the high cost involved if it buys it locally.
However, there have been concerns that the inputs have delayed as most of the crop has now grown.
Mr Hamusimbi said the ministry should come up with an alternative source of the inputs to supply the farmers now that the month of January has ended without signs of the imported commodity.
He noted that any further delay to supply the inputs would destroy the crop.
“We are pressuring the Government to find alternatives within the country to supply fertiliser to the farmers if the imported fertiliser is not yet in the country,” he said.
“We urge the Government not to start publicising that it has already distributed the fertiliser when it hasn’t.”
He noted that the distribution of the inputs had been shrouded in wild claims like that associated with the payment to farmers where Government claimed to have paid the farmers when in actual fact it did not.
Mr Hamusimbi said some farmers had not received their money up to now despite claims by the Government that everyone had been paid.
“And we are urging banks responsible for paying farmers to pay all farmers that haven’t been paid yet,” he said.
The Agriculture ministry was recently quoted to have said that top dressing fertiliser had already arrived in Zambia in readiness ready for distribution.