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Government has announced what it said was the successfull completion of the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) beneficiaries’ verification exercise for the 2024/25 farming season.
It claims that the exercise was completed on December, 20, 2024, following successful on-boarding of the targeted 1,024,434 eligible farmers, including 208,594 first-time beneficiaries.
Agriculture Minister Rueben Mtolo in a statement issued in Lusaka on Monday said all on-boarded farmers were expected and bonded to contribute to national food security by selling a minimum of 10 x 50kg bags of maize to the Food Reserve Agency (FRA).
Mtolo said the Ministry of Agriculture would soon publish the full lists of verified beneficiaries under FISP.
He also announced the successful input supply under the Electronic Voucher and Direct Input Supply modalities, with over 99 percent of verified farmers nationwide having successfully redeemed their inputs.
“As of December, 26, 2024, out of the total 1,024,434, 1,023,988 representing 99.9 percent of the verified beneficiaries had deposited their farmer contributions totaling K409,595,200,” Mtolo highlighted.
Additionally, 1,016,054 farmers representing 99.1 percent who deposited their farmer contributions had redeemed their inputs, according to the Agric Minister.
He stated that the 2024/25 Farming Season e-Voucher rollout was a resounding success.
“As of 26th December, 2024, out of the 739,266 farmer beneficiaries, 738,816 representing 99.9 percent had deposited for their inputs and of which, 731,010 representing 98.9 percent successfully redeemed their inputs,” Mtolo said.
He stated that a total of 631 agro input suppliers were engaged to supply inputs to farmers and these included 25 seed companies, 30 fertilizer and agrochemicals companies, and 576 agro dealers.
Mtolo said these operated 1,056 branch outlets across the 74 participating districts under the e-Voucher.
“The e-voucher rollout has streamlined input distribution by allowing farmers to choose inputs that best meet their specific farming needs,” he stated.
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He noted that this flexibility ensured that resources were tailored to individual agricultural requirements at the same time enhancing productivity.
Additionally, the e-voucher system created business opportunities for agro-Small to Medium Enterprises and jobs for youths in the rural areas, while improving liquidity in the agricultural supply chain by ensuring timely payments to suppliers for redeemed inputs, according to government.
“The input distribution under the Direct Input System across 42 districts was highly successful, with 42,775.20 Metric Tons representing 100 percent of Compound D and 100 percent of Urea fertilizers distributed, along with all contracted seeds,” Mtolo said.
He highlighted that as of December, 26, 2024, out of the 285,168 targeted farmers, a total of 285,044 beneficiaries representing 99.96 percent had successfully redeemed their farming inputs.
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