771 Chitambo farmers to benefit from ZAEFPF project

By Moses Nyati

CHITAMBO District Agricultural Coordinator (DACO) Jacob Shawa has disclosed that over700 farmers in the district are earmarked to benefit from the newly launched Zambia Emergency Food Production Facility (ZAEFPF), a project aimed at cushioning the impact that the Russia-Ukraine conflict have had on emergent farmers in the country with regards to the cost of inputs.

Mr Shawa said Chitambo district have been allocated 771 beneficiary farmers from the total 45,000 farmers that the project was targeting in the two implementing provinces namely Lusaka and Central provinces during the project’s two year life-span starting this 2022/23 farming season.

The District Agricultural Coordinator disclosed this during the first ever annual review and planning workshop held for district and extension staff under the Ministry of Agriculture at At has Lodge in Serenje.

He explained that the Zambia Emergency Food Production Facility would target emergent farmers that were not on Farmer Input Supply Programme (FISP) and that the scope of beneficiary was not only limited to non-salaried farmers but also would target salaried farmers in the formal and informal sectors as long as they have the capacity to deposit 50 per cent of the value of input pack required for a hectare of Maize or Soya beans.

Mr Shawa thus implored extension staff to go flat out and sensitize farmers especially those not benefiting from FISP to seize the opportunity by enrolling on the programme.

The DACO said each beneficiary farmer would be required to register on the Zambia Integrated Agricultural Management Information System (ZIAMIS) platform and make a 50 per cent deposit into a registered Bank which is equivalent to K5000, for the value of input pack of 350-400kg of fertilizer and 20-25kg of maize seed or80-100kg of soya bean seed covering a hectare.

Mr Shawa further said that of the 45,000 ZAEFPF target farmers, 50 per cent of the registered beneficiaries shall be women and 40 per cent will target salaried employees and would be implemented using existing ICT platforms and private sector-based distribution channels.

The District Agricultural Coordinator bemoaned that the Russia-Ukraine conflict has disrupted the input supply chains for fertilizer, seed and oil in the country, hence reducing their availability and affordability to smallholder and emergent farmers hence government through ZAEFPF project would provide short-term gap financing to increase supplies, availability and affordability of seeds and fertilizer so as to help raise productivity for the upcoming planting season and mitigate the likely food supply shortages in 2023.

“The Russia-Ukraine conflict is disrupting the input supply chains for fertilizer, and oil in Zambia, therefore reducing availability and affordability to small holder and emergent farmers and in view of this the project will provide short-term gap financing to increase supplies, availability and affordability of seeds and fertilizer so as to help raise productivity for the upcoming planting season. ”Mr Shawa explained

He further made mentioned that government through ZAEFPF would procure 300 motorbikes and tablets to support and easy service delivery for the extension staff in the Ministry.

ZAEFPF is a US$14.97 million two-year African Development Bank project being implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture in all 16 districts of Central and Lusaka provinces and is aimed at building resilient farming livelihoods and increase food and nutritional security in the face of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

NAIS

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