By JUDITH NAMUTOWE –
THE Zambia Cooperative Federation (ZCF) has called for the redesigning of the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) to derive economic value for the small scale farmers.
ZCF director general James Chirwa said in an interview in Lusaka that it was imperative that the FISP was redesigned to encourage productivity among small scale farmers in the country.
“We need to redesign FISP, it should have within itself a mechanism that will encourage productivity,” he said.
Mr Chirwa said in its current form it had left farmers to be a perpetually dependant on the programme and it was not achieving the desired results.
He said some farmers had remained on the FISP from the time of its inception a situation that had not created any economic benefit.
“It is able to give them food security at household level, but it is not improving them economically. What we want is not just food security but also to improve the economic status of these beneficiaries. We have made some proposals to redesigned the whole programme so that it encourages productivity,” Mr Chirwa said.
