By LUCY PHIRI
THE Small Scale Farmers Development Agency (SAFADA) has appealed to Minister of Agriculture, Mtolo Phiri to review and rethink the decision Members of Parliament to venture into the agro dealership and access support through Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) and open credit facility introduced by Government.
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Mr. Boyd Moobwe, the chief executive officer and founder said SAFADA is against the proposal because it would discourage existing agro dealers due to stiff competition between ordinary Zambian agro dealers and MPs.
He said Government had engaged local agro dealers to supply farmers under FISP when there was not any financial support from Government yet inputs suppliers were able to negotiate with major suppliers to susrvive.
“I want to commend Government for introducing an agriculture loan facility to support farmers who are not on FISP and other interested people to get a loan for agriculture inputs which has not been the case so far. It is unfortunate to hear that Government is now encouraging politicians to access the financial support to enable them to venture into agro dealership,’’ Mr Moobwe said.
Mr. Moobwe said SAFADA was suggesting that Government should empower ordinary agro dealers such as SAFADA which were already established to supplement government efforts in assisting small scale farmers.
He said it was saddening that in Zambia such opportunities were being diverted to support MPs but was hopeful by involving established agro dealers would stabilize the istribution of farm inputs in various Districts.
He stated that the planned move would have a negative impact on smaller agro dealers and may disrupt the agriculture credit facility.
“The small scale farmer’s development agency SAFADA expect parliamentarians to support unemployed local youth to venture into agro dealership other than engaging politicians directly,” Mr Moobwe said.
“SAFADA therefore suggests that Government should create a special financing program for the MPs to venture into agro dealership other than through the credit widow introduced to assist farmers who are not on FISP and other interested people to participate in agriculture production,” he said.
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