By CHILA NAMAIKO –

. Lubinda

TRADITIONAL leaders in Southern Province have urged newly appointed Agriculture and Livestock Minister Given Lubinda to explore more avenues to increase the number of beneficiaries under the Fertiliser Input Support Programme (FISP).
The chiefs are hopeful that by increasing the number of FISP beneficiaries, the move would help reduce poverty levels and address some cases of shortage of food in remote areas.
In an interview yesterday, Chief Chikanta of the Tonga speaking people in Kalomo, called on Mr Lubinda to map out other strategies that would see an addition to FISP beneficiaries.
The chief, who described Mr Lubinda as a hard working person, said agriculture was the main economic activity of people in rural areas hence the need for Government to incorporate more beneficiaries.
“As chiefs, our appeal is for our new Agriculture Minister (Mr Lubinda) to help find more ways of increasing FISP beneficiaries. We want many people particularly in rural areas to have access to farming inputs,” he said.
He said that FISP was an important Government programme which many small-scale farmers in remote areas should benefit from to enhance national agricultural production.
If the number of FISP beneficiaries was increased from the previous farming season, Chief Chikanta said the move would also significantly increase the country’s food security.
He also called on Government to address challenges farmers still face in accessing payments from the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) to avoid recurrence in the 2014/2015 farming season.
He said some farmers in rural areas had received their payments from the agency late and that there was need to accelerate the system of payments from authorised banks by FRA.
The chiefs were confident that through many interventions Government was putting in place to enhance the agriculture sector, Zambia’s economy would continue to progress well.