I’M UNDER PRESSURE
…the President is breathing fire on me, admits Mtolo
By Kombe Chimpinde Mataka
I AM under pressure, the President is breathing fire on me, says agriculture minister Reuben Mtolo Phiri.
Mtolo has admitted that he is concerned with the pace of distribution of fertiliser by some suppliers and that the government would “hand-hold” them to ensure all the fertilisers are delivered on time.
Addressing the media at his office yesterday, Mtolo said farmers would start accessing inputs countrywide from depots today.
He said he was under pressure to deliver and that it was expected.
“[Finance minister Situmbeko] Dr Musokotwane went out there and he has been saying investment in agriculture. Yes this is happening,” Mtolo said. “He is such a lovely Minister of Finance. He loves and supports agriculture and the combination of Dr Musokotwane and President HH (Hakainde Hichilema) is so good for our ministry because they love it. Yes, because they are both farmers. Dr Musokotwane is a diary farmer, the President keeps animals – ranch. He sells for beef and because of that they have got so much love for what we (ministry) are doing. I don’t rest colleagues. I am under pressure. You see me here, I am under a lot of pressure because the President is breathing fire on me and it is expected,” Mtolo said.
He announced that the distribution progress rate of fertilisers across the country, which was procured at US $369,073,965. 74, stood at 55 per cent.
“55 per cent is fair enough and it gives us a lot of hope that most of the supplies will be completely covered before the end of the month which is quite fairly good. It should not therefore affect production. If there could be any, it would be absolutely negligible and I wouldn’t even think about it. That is the reason I read out the weather focast because that is critical. What we are seeing outside, what we would see as rainfall here in Lusaka, is not the situation in the Eastern Province. It is not the situation in parts of Southern Province. It is not the situation in parts of Northern Province,” he said. “So we cannot indicate therefore that because we are distributing inputs now, we are going to have a drop in the production our maize, our groundnuts and soya beans next year. I would not think like that. From the experience that the ministry had, we can work hard by opening up collection tomorrow.”
Mtolo urged farmers to quickly deposit K400 on time in order to collect inputs on time.
Government has placed 1,024,434 farmers on Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) for the 2022/2023 farming season.
And Mtolo revealed that President Hichilema was concerned about lack of graduation from small to medium or large-scale farmers among FISP beneficiaries.
“That is why we are calling it ASP, the Agriculture Support Programme. Those who want to be a bit more technical, they add the C so that you look at a more comprehensive agriculture support programme for the farmers,” he said. “And the President always asks this question, you have given FISP for 20 years, what has it changed? It is the same problem year-in, year-out. Each time you are buying fertiliser, corruption here, there. What…all sorts of things. If you are Minister of Agriculture very very uncomfortable status, this period. A bit of delay in distribution eh, eh. ‘Fire that fellow. He is not doing a good job!’ All sorts of things and you are the ones, you scribes here. You are the ones who write those things in the papers. You write what people say.” Mtolo admitted that he is concerned with the pace of distribution of fertiliser by some suppliers.
“Yes we have concern with some of the suppliers and what we are doing is holding hands with those suppliers. I am not agreeing with the names you are giving me (Agrizam and FSG (Fertiliser Seed and Grain Company). I am not agreeing whatsoever. In fact, the suppliers we are worried of is none of those,” he said. “What we are doing is, we are hand-holding and guiding and giving way so that we can have the products immediately. And we are working seriously. I want you to know that as we sit here there is a team constituted which involves Minister of Agriculture, Ministry of Home Affairs, Cabinet, a number of transport people etcetera. Two teams. There is one logistics and one monitoring. So we are following. If someone says ‘my fertiliser is on the high seas, Zambia has the capacity to know which ships are on the high seas and identify that ship is moving to dock on the 16th and we are already putting measures in place that when it docks in Beira on the 16th, there will be no impediments. The ship will be given priority and the trucks will not be disturbed on the way. They will have access clearance. ZRA will be alerted.”
Mtolo said the government would probably have all its fertiliser sourced locally next year to alleviate possible delays and expenses of fertiliser.
“This honeymoon with UCZ (United Capital Fertiliser ) is not going to last for ever because we will bring competitors for them and they know because we want the price to go down,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mtolo said the government’s concept of farm blocks would enable the sector match up its contribution to the country’s gross domestic product to that of the mining sector.
“We have developed a concept of farm blocks. Zambia, our country is 75 million hectares. Out of this 75 million hectares, 45 million hectares is arable land. You can use it for planting. It is not hills. It is nice soil for planting but we are only using, imagine from 45 million, we are only using seven million. From independence to date 16 per cent of the 45 million. How do you expect us to beat mining? That is why we are below mining in terms of contribution to the GDP,” he said.
Mtolo announced that with respect to seed, government procured 10,244 metric tonnes of maize seed and 10,244 metric tonnes groundnuts representing a total cost of K1,686,760,043.54.
He said a farmer would be entitled to six bags of fertiliser (three Compound D and three bags of Urea), a-10kg bag of seed, and one 25kg of any one legume between groundnuts and Soya beans, depending on the choice of the farmer.
“A million hectares has been identified in each province. I hope you know where these farm blocks are. So you journalists get land here in Lusaka, it is Shikabeta in Rufunsa, in Eastern Province it is in Chinkubilo near Lundazi. In Muchinga Province, Shiwang’andu it is in Lusanya. In Northern Province, Lunte in Mporokoso. In Central Province it is in Nansanga. On the Copperbelt it is in Lufwanyama, Luswishi. In North Western Province it is in Solwezi, in Western Province it is here in Kaoma at Kalumange. In Southern Province it is at Musokotwane where there was Kazungula pontoon,” said Mtolo. “We have identified 100,000 hectares of land in each of these areas and we want people like you to invest, free of charge in your area of choice. I am not joking. If you don’t, foreigners have began coming and they are getting land.”