Katete District Agriculture Coordinator (DACO) James Ngalamila has said more than 26,000 farmers are being targeted for the 2018/2019 farming season under the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) in the district.

Mr Ngalamila said to match the target, the district has an allocation of more than 120, 000 by 50 Kg bags of D-Compound fertilizer and more than 80, 000 by 50 Kg bags of Urea fertilizer.

Mr Ngalamila said this in an interview with ZANIS in Katete today.

He said farmers will access the inputs through a new system called the Direct Input Supply but will deposit the same amount of money as they did through the E-voucher system.

Mr Ngalamila said the new system will provide a maize pack of three by 50Kg bags of D-compound, three by 50Kg bags of Urea and a 10Kg bag of maize seed.

He said it will also come with a legume either Groundnuts or Soya beans of which if it’s Groundnuts it will be a 20 Kg bag of Groundnuts and a one by 50 Kg bag of D-coumpound, while if it’s Soya beans it will be a one by 50 Kg bag of Soya bean seed and two by 50 Kg bags of D-compound fertilizer.

Meanwhile, Mr Ngalamila said currently the district had not yet received the seed but it has been receiving the fertilizer for the 2018/2019 farming season.

He said farmers will start depositing today to enable them to quickly access the inputs.