Pull up your socks, agro dealers told: early delivery of farming inputs will ensure high crop yields

SUN BUSINESS REPORTER writes

AGRO dealers in Zambia should speedily deliver farming inputs to farmers for the 2019/2020 farming season, says Kafue district commissioner Joseph Kamama.

Mr Kamama said once the farming inputs were delivered on time, government envisaged better crop yields.

He said this at the weekend when Nyimba Investments completed restocking over 6,000 metric tonnes of fertilizer in its storage warehouse.

Nyimba has been engaged to supply fertilizer to Kafue and has so far completed stocking its warehouse ahead of the September 1, date set for distribution.

Mr Kamana said that he was happy that Nyimba has managed to restock its warehouse in good time, a move he said would enable farmers buy the commodity before the farming season.

“We are happy that Nyimba are on course for the  2019/2020 farming season. We are happy that you have managed to restock your warehouse for the 2019/2020 farming season. Agro dealers should help the government to boost agriculture by delivering the inputs on time,” said Mr Kamana.

And senior agriculture officer Monica Mulenga encouraged the small-scale farmers to immediately start depositing the K400 so that they could access the fertilizer on time.

 “Once the farmers pay now, we will be able to distribute on time,” said Ms Mulenga.

And a small-scale farmer Lisa Matanda said that she was happy that fertilizer has at last been delivered to Kafue.

Ms Matanda said that for the past three years, the district has not been given fertilizer.

“What has happened today has never been done before. This is the first time that we have fertiliser in three years this early. We are very grateful to our President and the government,” Ms Matanda said.

And Nyimba Investments head-sales and marketing Willings Mulendema said that Nyimba has delivered 100 percent of the target consignment for Kafue.

“We are happy that we have done it for the entire Lusaka Province,” he said.