. Mutati

By KASONDE KASONDE –
THE Ministry of Finance has decided to suspend payments into the ministry of Agriculture’s Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) until it gives a clear implementation strategy between the initiative and the recently-deployed electronic voucher system (e-voucher).
Outlining a number of key decisions regarding agriculture, Finance Minister Felix Mutati also announced yesterday that  the role of the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) had to be limited to what it used to be in the past- that of buying only half a million tonnes of maize per harvest.
Regarding the long-standing farmer input support programme, Mr Mutati said there was need to have a clear path of transformation with regards to FISP as currently, the programme was not yielding positive results.
This is because both farmers and the Government were not getting the returns they deserved despite the huge amount of money Government had invested in the exercise.
MrMutati said the agriculture sector had to be transformed from a way of life for people to a business venture.
For this to be achieved, FISP has to be abandoned and a properly implemented e-voucher system should be promoted.
“In our transforming process in the agricultural sector, we have to discard FISP and extend the electronic voucher system and ensure that it is the only process for the distribution of farming inputs,” MrMutati said.
He said this in Lusaka during a review of the performance of the FISP during the 2016-2017 agricultural seasons.
MrMutati also said the role of the FRA had to be limited buying only half a million tonnes of maize because buying more than that distorted market prices.
He said Government would also introduce trade zones around the borders to allow farmers sell maize to neighbouring countries.
Agriculture Minister Dora Siliya said there was need for concerted efforts in making FISP and the e-voucher effective.
Ms Siliya said there was still very limited public awareness and knowledge among farmers and many stakeholders on FISP and how the e-voucher system was supposed to operate.
She said FISP was a well-intended programme and if properly executed, had the potential to transform the lives of smallholder farmers by linking them to profitable markets through partnerships by the private and public sectors.
Ms Siliya instructed her permanent secretary Julius Shawa to produce a report that would be presented to the Ministry of Finance on March 25, this year to justify FISP and why the e-voucher should continue to be funded following inefficiencies surrounding the programme.