Maravi

Few small-scale farmers will benefit from FSP in Monze, says Mwenya

Few small-scale farmers will benefit from FSP in Monze, says Mwenya
By Pride Bwalya
Tuesday November 20, 2007 [03:00]

THE Department of Marketing and Co-operatives in the Ministry of Agriculture in Monze has indicated that very few small-scale farmers will benefit from the fertiliser support programme (FSP) in the district this year. District marketing and co-operatives officer, Robam Mwenya, said that the subsidised inputs received in the district under the FSP this year were not enough to cater for all registered small-scale farmers.

Monze district received 34,200 by 50 kg bags of fertilizer compared to 68,400 by 50kg bags received during the previous farming season.

Mwenya appealed to the government to consider helping the small-scale farmers that would not benefit from the inputs in order to encourage production among them.

He, however, said that a good number of farmers were not eligible to benefit from the programme this year after the Ministry of Agriculture directed that no newly formed co-operatives would benefit from the FSP in the 2007/2008 farming season.

He said that the directive would help screen co-operative societies and farmer groups in order to get rid of those that were not genuine.
Mwenya observed that a number of co-operative societies were failing to abide by the by-laws and were not following the guidelines for management of co-operative societies.

He observed that most co-operative societies were being formed to access the inputs only, instead of them engaging in farming activities.

He noted that this year’s criteria for selection of beneficiaries would help ensure transparency and accountability.

And some small-scale farmers belonging to newco-operative societies and farmer groups complained that it was not fair for them to be excluded from this year’s FSP.

Marketing and co-operatives inspector Godfrey Sichilindi urged the farmers that would not benefit from the programme this year to refrain from depending on subsidised inputs all the time.

He also warned co-operative society leaders handling the distribution of fertiliser this year not to divert the inputs.

Labels: FSP, SMEs

posted by MrK @ 4:32 AM