E-Voucher has not worked to farmers – Chief Chikanta

Chief Chikanta of the Tonga speaking people of Kalomo has said the e-voucher system under the farmer inputs support programme FISP  has not worked to the expectations of the farmers his area.
Speaking in an interview ,the traditional leader  said the idea is very good but it has not worked well due to poor management and other irregularities.

He said there a lot of issues surrounding the implementation of the e voucher  which needs to be worked on.
The chief said Kalomo district  had about 28,000 farmers under the  e voucher  in 2016 but only 800  vouchers were paid for by the government.

He said the remaining farmers have not received  inputs from the government so far and if they had relied on e voucher, they would have been stranded.

Chikanta said some of his farmers deposited on the 27th of December,2016  but up to now their vouchers have not been cleared.

He has urged government to honor its obligation of subsidizing farmers’ e voucher and improve on the timing in disbursing the inputs.

The Chief further stressed that the time of distributing inputs is key to effectively implement the system.