Kaputa farmers pleased with input distribution, payments

—–Farmers in Kaputa district of Northern Province have expressed happiness with the on-going distribution of farming inputs and payment of money to farmers who sold their maize to the Food Reserve Agency (FRA).

Kaputa District Agricultural Chairperson, Philimon Kapoma, said both the distribution of inputs and payment of money to farmers were going on well in the district.

Mr Kapoma said the district has received all the consignment of maize and rice seeds and a larger quantity of urea fertiliser.

He said the district has received 2,808 by 10 kg bags of maize seed and 700 by 10 kg bags of rice seeds.

He added that the district has received 5,000 of the 6,313 bags of urea fertiliser and only 1,200 out of the 6,563 bags of D Compound fertiliser.

Mr Kapoma, who was speaking to ZANIS in an interview in Kaputa today, blamed the late delivery of compound D to lack of transporters to ferry the fertiliser from Kasama.

He pointed out that all the consignment of Compound D is in Kasama but transporters are not willing to deliver the inputs to Kaputa because of the bad roads and other factors.

Mr Kapoma said while there are a lot of transporters ferrying urea from Nchelenge in Luapula to Kaputa, only one transporter is ferrying Compound D from Kasama, a problem which might affect the farmers.

He has since appealed to government to expedite the process and hire more transporters to ferry the remaining bags of compound D to the district.

Mr Kapoma has, meanwhile, expressed happiness that farmers, who have paid for the seeds and fertiliser, have already collected their allocation, adding that only those farmers who had not paid were waiting to collect their inputs.

The District Agricultural Chairperson has also commended government for releasing money to the FRA to pay the farmers in Kaputa who sold their maize to the agency.

Mr Kapoma said farmers were getting their money from the bank and were preparing for another good harvest.

And District Marketing Development Officer, Charles Mwanza, said the district has received 1,200 bags of Compound D out of the targeted 6,563, and 5,000 of urea out of 6,313 bags.

Mr Mwanza added that the district also received all the 700 bags of rice seeds, and 2,808 bags of maize seeds.

He said of these, the district has already distributed 2100 bags of urea, 1200 bags of Compound D, 900 bags of maize seeds and 210 bags of rice seeds.