The Zambia National Farmers’ Union (ZNFU) has urged the Government through the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Agriculture to put priority on releasing of funds to pay farmers for crop marketing and input supply.

ZNFU President Jervis Zimba notes that delaying paying the farmers results in a chain reaction because depositing of funds will not take place on time for the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) E-voucher and all the good plans thrown in disarray.

Mr. Zimba says the Union is concerned because it is such delays that will lead to poor implementation of the FISP E-voucher again yet this is a very good programme which could emancipate the farmers and contribute towards diversification.

“We are in the middle of crop marketing and farmers are not being paid instantly by the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) for the maize supplied and some input suppliers have not been paid for inputs supplied under FISP. It is regrettable that not paying farmers on time has become the new normal way of doing business when dealing with the FRA as opposed to being an exception,” why, he questions.

He says most farmers depend on rainfed farming thus get one income stream in a year.

The ZNFU President states that notwithstanding all the competing demands on Government, it is time to walk the talk and avoid repeating the same mistakes every year because the cycle of crop production is known by all.

He is reminding the Treasury that rains do not wait for anyone hence decisions concerning farming cannot be delayed.

He further notes with concern that it is now the end of August and input acquisition is high on the farmers’ checklist hence there is need to re-engineer the sequencing of release of budgetary resources to give priority to ventures that are cardinal for propelling agriculture production.

Mr. Zimba is appealing to the Minister of Finance Margaret Mwanakatwe to come to the aid of the agriculture sector and release funds so that the engines on farms begin to move again.

“Posterity will judge us harshly for wasting opportunities as production slides downwards unchecked. The Union has always advocated for a special vault to be created for agriculture production related payments so that diversions to pay for other expenditures are eliminated”, Mr. Zimba has warned.

He proposes that government should consider postponing funding for projects that can wait to meet the pressing and time bound payments that must be made to keep alive Zambia’s agriculture dream at all cost.