Maravi

Govt's failure to release irrigation funds worries ZNFU

Govt's failure to release irrigation funds worries ZNFU
By Sangster Kapulisa
Thursday February 21, 2008 [03:00]

THE Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) is disappointed with government’s failure to release the Irrigation Development Fund (IDF). But agriculture deputy minister Daniel Kalenga yesterday said his ministry could not do anything if the Ministry of Finance did not release the money.

ZNFU executive secretary Songowayo Zyambo said the union was disappointed that despite the efforts by all stakeholders, the government had not released funds, which were budgeted for in 2007.

He said it was very important for the government to explain what happened to the fund and why it had not been implemented.

“The the government has to make a very clear statement about what happened to the fund, where it is and why it was not implemented; why did the agricultural minister launch the fund when it was not going to materialise? The farming community deserves a very good explanation from the government on this issue,” he said.

Zyambo said the IDF was one of the great things that the government had come up with and failure to implement such an important measure was frustrating and disappointing to the farming community which had been looking forward to utilising the fund to increase their irrigation capacity.

He said when the government was informed that the conditions for accessing the IDF were too stringent for small-scale farmers, a steering committee to oversee the utilisation of the fund and address the concerns of accessibility raised by the small-scale farmers was proposed by government, but since then, the steering committee had not been established.

“We have now just learnt that the proposed IDF steering committee was also not established because the funds were not released to the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives,” Zyambo said.

But Kalenga said the government had other pressing issues to which money was diverted. He said the government was however still committed to empowering the farming community and that money would be made available for the farmers to access through the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission.

Labels: IRRIGATION, ZNFU

posted by MrK @ 7:47 AM