Maravi

FRA pays Kasempa farmers K32bn

FRA pays Kasempa farmers K32bn
By Creavat Chituta
Sun 01 Jan. 2012, 13:35 CAT

GOVERNMENT has paid a total of K32 billion to all farmers that supplied maize to Food Reserve Agency (FRA) in Kasempa district.

Kasempa district commissioner Matakala Musialela said more 400,000 by 50 kilogramme bags of maize were sold to FRA in the 2011/2012 marketing season.
He commended the farmers in the district for their efforts in producing a bumper crop.

Musialela further appealed to the few unpaid farmers of Kantenda area to exercise patience as government had committed to paying them this week.

He was speaking in a speech read for him by Kasempa district education board Secretary Evans Kamwana during the Kasempa District Farmers and Marketing Cooperative Union annual general meeting held at Mukinge Girls Boarding Secondary School main hall in Kasempa on Friday.

Musialela also confirmed that government under the Farmer Input Support Programme -FISP - had so far distributed inputs to 14,430 deserving beneficiaries out of the allocated total of 14,530 beneficiaries in 204 cooperatives and other farmer organisations in Kasempa district.

He emphasised that government attached great importance to cooperative development as it realised that it was the only way to channel national resources to the grassroots.

And Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock north western province senior cooperatives officer Dickson Musema described both Kasempa and Mufumbwe district cooperatives unions general meetings as a success and urged the new boards to work hard to revamp the cooperatives in the two districts.

Musema cautioned primary cooperatives not to run cooperatives as family businesses and warned that his department was in the process of deregistering cooperatives defaulting in holding elections.

"Categorisation of cooperatives has commenced country-wide in order to classify cooperatives into successful, enterprising, emerging, non-enterprising and defunct categories based on an established criteria. This will help the department in prudent allocation of resources to capacity build genuine cooperatives and cancel certificates of fake cooperatives," said Musema.

He implored all members to adhere to cooperative principles so that Zambians appreciate the relevance of cooperatives in reducing poverty.

Labels: COOPERATIVES, CORRUPTION, FRA

posted by MrK @ 5:23 PM