17, 000 farmers to benefit from FISP

MORE than 17,000 farmers in Mkushi farmers will benefit from inputs under Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) for 2019- 2020 farming season, district agriculture coordinator Rueben Kabiti has said.

And Mr. Kabiti said this year, government would not use cardless modality but would use direct input supply.

He said government had already contracted Zambian fertiliser (ETG) for supply and that for seed and transporters, an advert was running in the media inviting applications.

He also appealed to cooperatives to take advantage of the situation and participate as transporters and as warehouse managers.

Mr. Kabiti said this during the commemoration of International Cooperative Day held at Farmers Trading Centre.

Mr. Kabiti said the FISP programme was scheduled to have started by July 1, and farmers were expected to make deposits up to September 31.

He said the programme had been delayed because of challenges encountered but that the programme will start soon and farmers would be informed when to make deposits.

“This season 2019-2020, we are targeting the same number of farmers that we had last year 17,094. And for this year, we are not going to use the cardless modality, we are going to use what they call direct input supply,” he said.

Mr. Kabiti said government was doing everything possible to ensure that by September, farmers start receiving inputs.

“This season 2019-2020, we are targeting the same number of farmers that we had last year 17,094. And for this year, we are not going to use the cardless modality, we are going to use what they call direct input supply.”