WE are committed to improving service delivery in the agriculture sector in line with the order to improve production and productivity, Ministry of Agriculture Permanent Secretary Green Mbozi has said.
Speaking to The Scoop, Mr. Mbozi said the improved Farmers Input Support Program (FISP) modalities were aimed at making sure that there was timely delivery of farming inputs to farmers.
He said offices of the District Agriculture Coordinator (DACO) should work at ensuring that there is adherence to the new guidelines in order to serve the farmers more efficiently.
“Farmers within each district will redeem inputs from suppliers within the vicinity of their area. However, with the inclusion of the E-deposit of funds by farmers which has been initiated by the Government, we will ensure that farmers have inputs in good time.
“We are glad that our farmers were happy that the disbursement of farming inputs commenced. This is to ensure that farmers are able to secure their inputs before the farming period in a bid to improve productivity especially with the prevalent changes in the climate weather patterns,” Mr. Mbozi said.
He said officers from the Ministry of Agriculture should be equal to the task to ensure that sensitization is done among farmers adding that he was aware that most districts were ready to execute the exercise of ensuring that the captured beneficiaries received their inputs on time.
“Officers under the program should ensure that there is transparency in the implementation of the program this year. Otherwise, no lawlessness will be entertained this year. Everyone should receive their required number of inputs,” he said.
“I am aware that a good number of districts are ready to execute the exercise to ensure that all the captured beneficiaries are served on time. Further, to ensure that transparency is enhanced DACOs should display the lists of beneficiaries for easy access by the public,” he said.
He said with regards to the FISP, beneficiaries’ information should be made available to the public adding that the Government had migrated to an electronically generated Authority to Deposit system.
“The Government has upgraded the E-deposits to electronic; the system has migrated from manually generated Authority to Deposit to electronic which is paperless. Therefore, all the new modalities that have been put in place are aimed at improving service delivery.
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