Agriculture Minister Dora Siliya says Government will
support 1,609,187 farmers under the Farmer Input Support
Programme in the 2016/2017 farming season.
Ms Siliya has told Parliament in a ministerial statement
yesterday that of the total targeted beneficiaries, one
million, six hundred and sixty six farmers will be supported
under the conventional system in the sixty four districts
while the remaining 602,521 farmers in 39 districts will be
provided with the subsidy under the e-voucher system.
Ms Siliya says the total cost of FISP under the conventional
system and the e-voucher system is K3.14 billion.
She says the ministry has registered 422 agro dealers to
participate in the e-voucher system in the 39 districts who
were selected through a competitive national tender.
Ms Siliya adds that five banks namely ZANACO, Barclays
bank, Banc ABC, ECOBANK and UBA bank have been
contracted to print 368,832 Visa cards for the newly included
districts under the e-voucher system.
And Ms Siliya says a total of 85,337.4 metric tonnes of
Compound D fertilizer has been distributed to all the ten
provinces as at 29th November,2016 under the conventional
Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP).
She says this represents 89% distribution against the target
of 96,092 metric tonnes.
Ms Siliya further states that a total of 34,426.8 metric tonnes
of urea has also been distributed representing 39% of the
target of 87,160 metric tonnes.
She says under the e-voucher system, 233,689 farmers
already have the cards and will be activated in the next few
days.
Ms Siliya adds that the 171,832 new visa cards for newly
added districts have been printed out of the target of
368,832, while the balance of the cards is being printed by
the participating banks.
She says the distribution of the cards will start tomorrow
30th November.
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