Some farmers under FISP reverted back to convectional

Michael Katambo

Government will revert approximately 40 percent of the total targeted beneficiaries under the e-voucher program back to the conventional Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP).

Announcing the development at a media briefing, Agricultural Minister Michael Katambo said the decision was arrived at after considering the continued challenges that have continued hampering the implementation of the e-voucher program in most districts around the country.

Mr. Katambo says some of the continuous challenges noted include, network limitations in some districts, farmers losing their cards or pin numbers, and complications in deposit capture among others.

He adds that other challenges noted are competence limitations in the usage of ICTs by farmers, agro-dealers and members of staff, and delays in card loading by service providers.

He says reverting to the conventional FISP will entail the ministry procuring fertilizer and assorted seed varieties for onwards distribution to farmers in selected districts.

Mr. Katambo says the affected districts will be announced to the public in due course.

He adds that for the remaining districts under the e-voucher system, the careless redeeming application and biometric systems will be used to help ease the problems of card and pin losses.