By Kalata News
Lusaka, December – AGRIBUSINESSES have partnered with the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) to introduce farming schemes to provide correct farm inputs for both small scale and commercial farmers.
These schemes will be independent of the government promoted Farmer Input Supply Programme (FISP) among others.
The farmer packs will be driven by agribusinesses based on their farmer needs assessments, research and improvement on the government run farmer support schemes.
The Ulimi Starter pack is designed for small scale farmers growing for house hold consumption on 600 square metres or less (20m x 30m).
On the other hand, the Ulimi Credit Scheme is targeting farmers growing for commercial purposes on 10,000 square metres (100m x 100m) or more.
According to ZNFU, farmers through the years have had no access to finance that would support farm production and even the existing input support services only serve 1 million farmers out of 3 million registered farmers.
ZNFU asks, who then is looking out for the 2 million farmers left out? These input schemes are complementary to the already existing support and are internal solutions to the existing challenges being faced by the farmers.
The ZNFU is aware of the challenges that have befallen farmers in the past and have swiftly addressed the concerns.
For small scale farmers, the starter pack targets to support household food security and nutrition. It is designed to supply farmers with all the necessary inputs needed to grow and manage their farm plots.
Farmers that get this starter pack will have access to;
- 5kg maize seed,
- 11kg Urea and D Compound,
- 40kg lime, 3 kg legumes (either soyabeans, beans, groundnuts and others),
- inoculant,
- molibdenum, and an insecticide.
How will it work?
The starter pack is designed for specified size of farm plots.
For example, the 2,5kg maize seed will be planted on a 20m by 30m portion of land and the farmer will harvest between 8 to 7, 50kg bags enough for a family to feed till the next harvest and the legumes will be planted on a similar plot size of 20m by 30m which harvest can be traded to purchase the pack for next season.
The Starter Pack is intentionally designed to grow maize and legumes in rotation as a good agronomic practice which addresses sustainability concerns.
Cost of the starter Pack:
The Pack will retail for ZMK1,550 (a farmer will have access to maize and legume seed and associated inputs the pack).
Eligibility:
This is open to all farmers, NGOs, Faith Based Organizations, Government Departments and the like can secure these for their targeted vulnerable groups.
For farmers growing for commercial purposes, the ZNFU Ulimi Input Credit Scheme is available for farmers that produce for commercial purposes and cultivate above 1 hectare of land (100 by 100).
The farmer will pay 50 percent of the cost and the financial services provider will advance the other 50 percent credit to ensure the input supplier is paid in full and the farmer will pay off the balance after harvest.
The schemes will be transacted through a cashless payment method using USSD mobile money codes across all networks and payments to suppliers will be done by the banks upon farmers’ confirmation of receiving the inputs in totality. This method further promotes financial inclusion as the traditional financing mechanism integrates with the mobile payment system that has been growing rapidly over the years. Through this program, farmers are assured of accessing quality inputs from reputable agribusiness companies that are members of the ZNFU.
In the last farming season, farmers had challenges accessing the right amount of farm inputs and on time for their cultivated areas.
It is hoped that these introduced starter packs will help mitigate the farm disasters experienced in the last farming season in as far as correct inputs and delivery of these inputs, were concerned.
