Africa-Press – Zambia. 138, 244 small scale farmers in Southern province have deposited their K400 contributions towards the 2021/2022 farming season under the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP).
Southern Province Agricultural Coordinator Max Choombe confirms the development in an interview that a total sum of K55, 297, 600 has been deposited in various commercial banks that have been selected in the programme.
Dr Choombe says Southern Province is targeting a total of 160,103 smallholder farmers as beneficiaries under FISP. “ Livingstone and Siavonga have since made a 100 per cent deposits by smallholder farmers who have been targeted to benefit from the programme, “ said the Regional Agriculture Coordinator.
He explained that the deposits currently made by farmers represent 86 per cent from the total number of farmers targeted under the programme during the 2021/2022 farming season.
Kazungula district is the least in terms of number of farmers that have made deposits from the 13 districts in the province namely, Livingstone, Zimba, and Kalomo.
Others are Choma, Sinazongwe, Monze, Namwala, Gwembe, Mazabuka, Chikankata, Siavonga, and Kazungula. Dr. Choombe appealed to all districts that have not reached 100 per cent in ensuring that deposits are made under the FISP programme to do so expeditiously.
The FISP program was introduced in 2009/10 farming season and was transformed from the Farmer Support Program (FSP). During the transformation the number of inputs per household reduced by half from eight (8) 50Kg bags of fertilizer to four (4) 50kg bags per household.
