By CHUSA SICHONE –

Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia (NCZ) has so far produced 52,534.7 tonnes out of the targeted 106,410 tonnes of Compound D fertiliser.
Of the 52,534.7 tonnes, the Government through the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, has since delivered 43,137.4 tonnes to 51 districts countrywide and the remaining 53,875.3 tones of basal dressing fertiliser is expected to be produced and distributed to the rest of the districts by September, this year.
Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Permanent Secretary David Shamulenge said in a statement yesterday that the Provincial Agricultural Coordinators (PACOs) and District Agricultural Coordinators (DACOs) had confirmed receipt of the fertiliser up to district level.
Dr Shamulenge said the NCZ was manufacturing an average of 1,000 tones of Compound D fertiliser per day and that it was unprecedented for the basal dressing fertiliser to have been delivered to various district depots countrywide as early as June.
“The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock wishes to assure farmers and stakeholders that the Ministry is working round the clock to ensure that agricultural inputs for the 2014/15 farming season are delivered to farmers in the month of September as per Government directive and expectation of farmers,” he said.
To accelerate the input distribution, the Ministry has stepped up the process of completing the remaining logistical arrangements, such as selection of beneficiary farmers and awarding of contracts to transporters and seed suppliers to ensure that all farming inputs were delivered to farmers on time.
Dr Shamulenge said indications from the seed suppliers were that they had the required quantities, types and varieties of seed for the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) and they were ready to supply immediately the contracts were awarded.
“Further, the ministry would like to assure the nation that contracts for local transporters who will distribute inputs from district depots into the farming communities will be awarded by August 25 while contracts of seed suppliers will be awarded by August 26.
“This is being done to provide enough time for the distribution to be completed within the set deadline of September,” Dr Shamulenge said.
Dr Shamulenge has since directed all DACOs and PACOs countrywide to ensure that all necessary logistics were in place to facilitate the distribution of all the inputs to farmers on time and warned that any staff member found frustrating Government’s efforts would be dealt with severely.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock has called for orderliness in the utilisation of storage facilities for inputs and agricultural produce as there was adequate separate storage space for grain and inputs in the storage sheds.