Kitwe City has started receiving farming inputs for the 2022/2023 farming season.
So far the area received 16,677 bags of Urea supplied by Export Trading Group.
Kitwe District Marketing and Development Officer Kutauka Mulonda has confirmed the development adding that a total allocation of 21,63 bags of Urea and the same quantity for D – Compound.
ZANIS reports Ms. Mulonda in an interview however said no D – Compound fertilizer has been received yet.
She expressed hope that Nitrogen Chemical of Zambia, (NCZ) the suppliers for D -Compound , will start the distribution exercise soon.
“As a district we have received 16,677 by 50 bags of Urea out of a total allocation of 21,063 from ETG, we are still awaiting to receive an equal quantity of D – Compound from Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia which we hope will be start coming soon, otherwise we are on course as long as NCZ starts the distribution soon as expected,” she said.
The department of agriculture is currently capturing biometric details of farmers to verify that the people appearing in the register are real and eligible farmers.
Ms. Mulonda explained that capturing of biometric details is meant to avoid distributing inputs to ghost farmers.
“The biometric detail capturing process is quick, we just want to ensure that the people receiving the inputs are real farmers, in the past some people used to get inputs under the names of deceased
beneficiaries, so we want to correct that anomaly,” she said.
Farmers will only start collecting inputs once they are given the authority to deposit a payment of K400.
Government has started the distribution of farming inputs to farmers across the country under the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP).