National Union for Small Scale Farmers of Zambia (NUSFAZ) Executive Director Ebony Loloji says the decision by government to phase out the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) will have a huge negative impact on farmers.
Minister of Agriculture Reuben Mtolo announced in Parliament that government will phase out FISP to replace it with affordable loans for farmers. He explained that the phasing out process will be done gradually to ensure that Farmers are prepared and added that the process will help eliminate ghost beneficiaries and bring sanity in the Agriculture sector.
Mr. Loloji says FISP is a very sensitive programme that cannot just be phased out because most famers depend on it, adding that it has been running for over 10 years.
Mr. Loloji advises that instead of phasing out FISP, government should consider running the two programmes at the same time so that farmers that will not be benefit from FISP will use the loans.
