MP regrets e-voucher hiccups
By SIMON MUNTEMBA A LAWMAKER in Northwestern Province has complained about the failed e-voucher system noting that the implementation period for 2017/2018 farming season was too short.
UPND Kasempa MP, Bren- da Tambatamba has told the Daily Nation that government should re-examine the closure of the e-voucher exercise in Kasempa because a number of farmers from far flung areas have not benefited from the programme due to breakdown of telecommunication facilities and its short implementation period.
She said poor implementation of the system if not urgently attended to would affect food security in her constituency.
“Having conducted a tour of the constituency over the first half of January this year, key concerns of the people in Kasempa are firstly on the failure of the e-voucher agro input distribution programme. The programme was introduced very late in the season effectively around mid-December, only to be brought to an abrupt end on January 19.
“Farmers in far flung areas like Mukema, Nyoka, Jifumpa, Kamakechi, Njenga, Kalombe, Lubofu were impacted by lack of telecommunication facilities,” Ms Tambatamba said.
She explained that in between Pay Code, the microfin company assigned to receive the farmer contribution failed to include farmers in the Smart Zambia System with the urgency the exercise deserved considering its late start.
“My earnest appeal to the Minister of Agriculture, Dora Siliya is to reconsider the closure of the e-voucher exercise and allow the farmers who in fact have been rendered extra vulnerable by FRA failure to pay them for their 2016-2017 season crop,” she said.
She noted that this impacted negatively on farmers in Kasempa who are subjected to the same closure dates as those in areas where the exercise started in November and were given FRA payment preference.
She added: “The people of Kasempa’s livelihood depends on agriculture as there is no other industry.”
She said if no attention was given to the e-voucher crisis in Kasempa, it would lead to a food security disaster as Kasempa was the top maize grain grower in North-Western Province.
Ms Tambatamba further appealed to FRA to move in quickly and pay what was due to the outstanding number of farmers and prevent parents from failing to pay for their children’s school fees.
And Ms Tambatamba has appealed to the Ministry of Communications and Transport to prevail on the Zambia Information Communication Technology Agency (ZICTA) to expedite installation of the assigned towers in Kasempa if challenges of e-voucher system were to be sorted out.
“I am also appealing to the Ministry of Communications and transport to prevail on ZICTA to expedite the installation of the assigned towers. Thousands of farmers have been constrained and left out because of non-availability of this critical service,” she said.
Ms Tambatamba pointed out that the issue of Smart Zambia should have been accompanied by an audit of feasibility and adaptability of the e-voucher system roll out to underserved rural districts such as Kasempa.