By JULIUS PHIRI –
THE United Party for National Development (UPND) says the Patriotic Front has destroyed Zambian agriculture with the introduction of systems that have yielded no benefits for farmers.
UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema said in Eastern Province that the e-voucher system had led to delays in farmers getting their hands on critical inputs.
Mr Hichilema was speaking at a UPND party renewal exercise at Mpezeni Park Square on Saturday in Chipata where he alleged the system was riddled with corruption.
He claimed that UPND had a strong policy framework and would strive hard to reinstate the agriculture sector in the country, by replacing the e-voucher system with efficient systems that would ensure the viability of farming for those who depended on it.
But Eastern Province  PF Chairperson Andrew Lubusha dismissed Mr Hichilema’s claims, saying PF Government had the best agriculture policy ever seen in Zambia.
Mr Lubusha said e-voucher had drastically reduced levels of misappropriation by cooperatives, ensuring that 99 per cent recipients of inputs were actual farmers.
He said the e-voucher had also empowered thousands of agro-dealers in creation of the much needed job opportunities in the country.
He said Mr Hichilema had always accused the government of corruption in its execution of the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP).
“Will this man, HH, ever accept the good that President Edgar Lungu has done? How possible is it that everything the government does is wrong?” he asked.
Mr Lubusha said said it was odd that few days previously, UPND mobilisation chairperson Sylvia Masebo and another senior official, Levy Ngoma, were on Radio Breeze saying that e-voucher was a good thing and now their disgruntled president was contradicting them.
“President Lungu has done his best to ensure that all farmers get their inputs and we are extremely confident and sure that this season they will get their inputs around November. The PF is a working and committed Government. HH is just a hater and enemy of progress,” he said.
He challenged Mr Hichilema to tell the nation how PF had never done anything right, while even his own MPs were beneficiaries of the PF hardwork. He said the PF Government had taken development to all corners of Zambia, including UPND constituencies.