Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
Agriculture Minister Dora Siliya
Agriculture Minister Dora Siliya says the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) being implemented under the E-Voucher system is progressing well.
The Agriculture Minister states that the program has so far covered a total of 100 districts going beyond the 500,000 mark out of the 1,000,000 targeted farmers.
Ms Siliya says she is happy to note that just yesterday her ministry gave banks more money meaning that the uptake is there from the farmers and that the target is 1 million farmers moving from 39 districts to 100 districts.
And Ms. Siliya has also stated that the challenges experienced so far are as a result of communication and Internet failure in some areas.
She has since called on all stakeholders to support the programme because its failure will be disastrous to the country.
Meanwhile, the Zambia Council for Social Development says the PF Leadership must treat Ms SIliya as an enemy to their manifesto on agriculture.
ZCSD Executive Director Lewis Mwape says the best thing Ms Siliya could have done was first to apologize to the nation on behalf of the President otherwise this remains the presidential duty to apologize to the farmers.
Ms Mwape says farmer across the country are mourning and the Agriculture Minister is busy teasing them that the government has exceeded the target in input distribution 3 Months in the farming season.
He says this statement is carelessness and irresponsibility of the worst kind.