Farmers issued with expired maize under FISP
The
Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute (IAPRI) has revealed that some
farmers under the Direct Input Supply (DIS) were issued with expired maize seed
during the distribution of farm inputs in the 2018-2019 farming season.
IAPRI
senior research associate Auckland Kuteya has also disclosed that a total of
371,616 farmers in 45 districts were covered under the conventional FISP while
650,818 farmers remained under the e-voucher.
Speaking
when he made a presentation at the Implementation Review meeting of the
E-voucher and DIS during 2018/2019 farming season, Mr. Kuteya also noted that
farmers were not given a choice to inputs as this was already pre-determined,
which he says defeated the diversification agenda.
He
says diversification is stifled due to delivery of fertilizer and mainly maize
seed.
And
Mr Kuteya has observed that late release of funds under E- Voucher prevented
full participation of the private sector and delayed release of inputs.
He
has since recommended that government releases funds on time and instantly pay
agro dealers in order to realize the full potential of the e-voucher.
And
officiating at the event, Smart Zambia Director Systems Development, David
Phiri has disclosed that as at 4th February, 2019, a total of 265,914 farmers
representing 65% of targeted beneficiaries under the direct input supply
districts had fully collected their inputs while 140,938 representing 35% had
partially collected their inputs allocation.
Dr.
Phiri says most partial collection of inputs arose from shortage of seeds for
diversification packs such as soybeans, sorghum and ground nuts.
Below is the statement
It is my pleasure to speak to you this
morning on behalf of the deputy secretary to the cabinet who is also the
national coordinator from smart Zambia institute.
I am especially pleased to have key
stakeholders in the agriculture sector and consumer association in one place
and share with you the key note address on the review of the progress of
implementation of the farmer input support programme (FISP) from the e-government
division also known as smart Zambia institute on behalf of the national
coordinator.
Let me commend cuts and Oxfam for
this important meeting for disseminating the findings of a study that was
undertaken on the implementation of e-voucher in 2018 and as stakeholders,
sharing ideas, exchanging notes and networking as members of the same family.
Let me
also commend the various distinguished speakers and panellist who shall
share their knowledge and wisdom to this eminent gathering.
ladies and gentlemen
The government
introduced policy reforms to diversify the economy and agriculture sector aimed
at improving the operational efficiency and contribution to gdp. in line with
the reforms, the farmer input support programme (fisp) was launched in 2002, in
order to improve access to inputs among commercially viable small-scale farmers.
In 2015
the government started the process of gradual disengagement from providing
agricultural inputs in order to give room to enhanced private sector participation
in the supply and distribution of agricultural inputs by launching the fisp
electronic voucher (evoucher) system.
Introduction of the evoucher system was also aimed at ensuring the fisp
is more efficient and cost-effective in disbursing inputs to the beneficiaries
as well as in supporting diversification in accelerating agriculture sector
development.
ladies and
gentlemen
In the 2015/2016 farming season, the evoucher system was piloted in
thirteen (13) districts in southern, lusaka, central and copperbelt provinces
covering 241,000 farmers who received their input subsidy through a pre-paid
visa bank cards as opposed to receiving physical inputs centrally procured and
distributed by government.
The
evoucher system was later expanded to 39 districts in all the 10 provinces in
the 2016/2017 season covering approximately 600,000 farmers.
ladies
and gentlemen
In 2017 /2018 farming season, as part of the continued reforms under
fisp, the government decided to migrate full implementation of the fisp to be
100% based on the e-voucher system for one (1) million beneficiary farmers.
Further, managing diversified
delivery modes of fisp and multiple private sector stakeholders who all had
different systems meant that the government needed to implement a systematic
way of managing the programme.
Accordingly, starting with the
2017/2018 agriculture seasons, the ministry of agriculture in collaboration with
smart zambia institute, with support from the food and agriculture organisation
(fao) and the european union (eu) implemented the zambia integrated agriculture
management information system (ziamis) to support the management of the fisp
e-voucher system.
The Ziamis has since been
successfully rolled out in all districts and provinces across the country where a total of 2, 659
government personnel have been trained,
registered and are facilitating various functionalities ranging from farmer
registration to management and monitoring of the fisp programme at camp,
district, provincial and national level.
Ladies and gentlemen
In The 2018/2019 farming season,
government redesigned the ziamis to replace the visa and other proprietary cary
based system to address critical challenges experienced under fisp
implementation in the 2017/2018 season.
Some of the key challenges that have been addressed by card less redeeming
include the following:
a)
significant operational delays in current cards loading for farmer
contribution and grz contribution on the existing farmer cards leading to (i)
delays in funds disbursement under the program, (ii) delays in farmer access to
inputs and (iii) constant reconciliation challenges for funds by service
providers and grz.
b) by-passing of the recommended redeeming procedures at the time
of redeeming by eligible beneficiaries thereby (i) allowing redeeming of
non-agriculture products, (ii) transacting with and enabling funds to flow to
unregistered vendors and (iii) diminished transparency ang government oversight
leading to weak accountability over the flow of fisp funds;
c) complexity and inflexibility of rules, regulations and technological
capabilities necessary
for enhancing ict security towards authentication of beneficiaries and the
efficient and effective use of visa cards under the fisp program at the point
of redeeming.
The card less redeeming was therefore introduced to improve efficiency and effectiveness
of the overall modality of transferring farmer entitlement to intended
beneficiaries under the fisp program.
specifically, the approach bought about
the following improvements in the management of fisp:
a)
improved operational efficiency at the time of redeeming by ensuring
that all farmers fulfilled their eligibility criteria by making a deposit are
services within the shortest possible time. the card less redeeming eliminated
identified/documented operational delays associated with card production,
distribution, replacements, pin resets and loading of funds to cards.
b) allow for
implementing a transparent, flexible and secure means of authenticating
legitimate beneficiaries at the point of redeeming and funds flow to
vendors;
c) eliminated redeeming of entitlements and funds flow to vendors outside
government oversight through the ziamis.
d) provided flexible financing arrangements by grz to the
fisp program while maintaining effectiveness of eligible farmer access
to inputs within the season.
ladies and gentlemen
the ziamis has facilitated automated
and real-time management of key processes of the programme including the
following:
a) management of beneficiaries (targeting of eligible farmers, approval of
beneficiaries, updating of farmer records for identification and
authentication) based on a universal national farmers database.
b) coordination and management of beneficiary authentication processes such
as issuance of e-voucher codes, registration of nrcs, biometric authentication,
automated notification to beneficiaries on transactions taking place on their
accounts and enabling efficient response to queries by fisp beneficiaries and
other stakeholders.
c) real time and instant tracking of farmer’ contributions made across all
participating banks, through integration and automatic tracking of farmers’
deposits. time of servicing farmers from deposit to input redeeming/collection has
been reduced to 1 day.
d) real time management of authorisation and processing of government
subsidy under e-voucher and authorisation to collect inputs in direct input
supply modality upon verification of fulfilment of requisite processes;
e) real time tracking of farmer redeeming of inputs from cleared fisp
catalogue in e-vouchers and release of inputs to farmers at warehouses under
direct input supply;
f) generation of payment invoices for agro-dealers and associated payment
instructions to the banks on the basis of actual farmer input redeeming;
g) support for end of season reconciliations with participating banks and
agro-dealers;
Let Me draw your attention to the 2018/2019 fisp implementation
status.
The Farmer Input Support Programme (Fisp)
For The 2018/2019 Season, Targeted To Support one million (1,000,000) farmers
across the country.
For The 2018/2019 Season The
Government Realised That The Private Sector Remained constrained to supply
adequate amounts of inputs in good time and therefore, in order to secure the
food security for the country the fisp was re-designed to have about 600,000
farmers receive fisp support through the electronic voucher system whilst the
remaining 400,000 were designated to receive support through direct input
supply by the government.
Distinction between e-voucher and direct
supply modality was done at district level and both modalities were implemented
in all provinces. under both modalities of fisp that is e-voucher and direct
input supply, the farmers were expected to co-contribute zmk400 kwacha to be
eligible to receive government support;
Under the e-voucher modality,
farmers received government subsidy of zmw 1, 700 in addition to the zmw 400.00
contribution. out of the 1,700.00 government contribution, zmw 100 was directly
paid by the government towards weather indexed insurance for all fisp
beneficiary farmers. as such, a total of zmk2, 000 was made available for the
farmer to procure inputs of their choice at government approved agro-dealers
registered to participate on fisp.
ladies and gentlemen
Under the direct input supply mode
of fisp, farmers received an input pack comprising of 10 kg maize seed, 3x 50kg
bags urea and 3x 50kg bags d-compound
fertilisers.
Additionally, farmers were given an extra but optional
diversification pack of either soya-beans, groundnuts or sorghum consisting of
seed and associated fertiliser.
ladies and gentlemen
Let Me quickly highlight the
implementation progress for the 2018/2019 fisp;
a) a total of 870 agro-dealers operating about 2,155 outlets and warehouses
across the country were registered under the fisp to facilitate farmers buy or
collect their inputs during the season;
b) seven (7) commercial banks and two (2) private sector financial service
providers were contracted to facilitate receiving of deposits from farmers and
payment of agro-dealers ( in the evoucher system);
c) as at 4th february 2019, a total of 998,791 representing
99.9% of the targeted 1,000,000 beneficiary farmers in both e-voucher and
direct input supply districts had successfully deposited their contributions
making them eligible to receive government support.
d) as at 4th febrary 2019, a total of 265,914 farmers
representing 65% of targeted beneficiaries under the direct input supply
districts had fully collected their inputs while 140,938 representing 35% had
partially collected their inputs allocation.
most partial collection of inputs resulted from shortage of seeds for
diversification packs such as soybeans, sorghum and ground nuts. generally,
farmers collected all their fertilisers and maize seeds allocations. in total
406,852 farmers representing 99.6% had collected inputs under direct input
supply modality.
e) as at 4th february 2019, a total of 591, 038 farmers under
e-voucher modalities had deposited their contribution. further, about 548, 665
farmers had redeemed their evoucher for inputs giving a total amount of zmw
1,095,669,580.42 kwacha in transactions and 93% redemption rate.
ladies and gentlemen
Despite the successful
implementation of fisp programme in the 2018/2019 farming season, a few
challenges were observed.
under the direct input supply fisp
modality, challenges experienced included the following;
a) late or failure to deliver correct amounts of inputs especially seeds
for diversification packs of either groundnuts, soybeans or sorghums; and
b) distribution of inputs especially fertilisers from one distribution
warehouse led to inefficiencies in input distribution.
c) under the evoucher fisp modality, challenges included the following:
d) delayed payments to agro-dealers for inputs supplied to farmers
negatively affected capacity by agro-dealers to restock inputs thereby reducing
inputs availability and the delaying further input collection by farmers;
e) most input suppliers especially fertiliser suppliers were insisting on
cash sales negatively affecting distribution of inputs in most districts as
ago-dealers depend on payment to restock;
f) some agro-dealers have been redeeming farmers vouchers without releasing
inputs or only providing incomplete amounts of the expected inputs hoping to
supply remaining inputs once they are paid;
In Conclusion, From The Foregoing Significant Improvements Have
Been Achieved In The Transparency, operational efficiency, and business process
flows of the fisp due to implementation of the ziamis and associated
administrative processes.
The Following preliminary enhancements are being considered to
consolidate the gains made under the fisp implementation:
a) enhance the
beneficiary eligibility-validation to strengthen objective targeting of
beneficiaries under the programme;
b) complete real time
integration of supplier and agro-dealer payment module under ziamis to enhance
efficiency of the payment mechanisms for agro-dealers and suppliers and thereby
improve inputs availability;
c) develop and insurance
management module under the ziamis to manage the implementation of weather
indexed insurance in a transparent and accountable manner;
d) operationalise
countrywide biometric authentication to ensure beneficiaries personally
participate on the programme instead of through representation by cooperative
and other community leaders who often defraud intended beneficiaries;
e)
private sector is encouraged to build agriculture infrastructure like
warehouse to make supply and distribution of inputs easier as well as produce
sufficient quantities of diversification of inputs.
ladies and gentlemen
The Journey to a fully transformed farmer input support programme
is a long one. i take satisfaction that it is a journey we have begun and we
are already seeing the progress and a few challenges which can be resolved by
all stakeholders.
You have the support of the government through the ministry of
agriculture, ministry of finance and smart zambia institute and other
government institutions. we will be there for you in creating the agriculture
policy environment and electronic platform within which you can thrive.
Meanwhile
Consumer Unity Trust (CUTS) International National Coordinator, Chennai Mukumba
has called on government to address the challenges facing the implementation of
the E-voucher.
The Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS)
International, in collaboration with Oxfam, hosted a stakeholder consultation
on the ‘Implementation of the E-Voucher in 2018/9’ at the Taj Pamodzi hotel in
Lusaka.
The purpose of the meeting was to review
the implementation of the e-voucher programme and discuss the outlook of the
programme for 2019.
Key points raised by actors were
that:
· The e-voucher provides better services for farmers
than the DIS, when it works. Farmers at the meeting highlighted that the e-voucher
empowers farmers to purchase inputs that are most appropriate to their own
circumstances. This is particularly important for female farmers as was
indicated by a female farmer from Rufunsa who sat on the panel.
· The e-voucher can promote diversification. All
stakeholders noted that the reform has encouraged agricultural diversification
which is key to boosting productivity in the agricultural sector.
· The e-voucherreduces overall implementation costs of
the programme. Indeed,IAPRI and ZNFU calculate that the cost per farmer for the
e-voucher is at least 15% less than the traditional subsidy and that the
government is able to save on procurement and distribution costs of programme
implementation.
· The e-voucher can contribute to job creation and
economic growth in the agricultural sector.Agro-dealers at the meeting
highlighted the number of jobs that had been created by the e-voucher programme
through increasing the agro-dealerships and outlets; however, in areas where
the DIS was being implemented, a number of jobs had been lost.
Following the meeting, Ms
Chenai Mukumba closed the meeting highlighting the importance of needing to
begin preparing for the next farming season now.
She highlighted thatthe
Minister of Finance in the 2019 Budget Address indicated that the districts that were under the DIS would be re-introduced on the
e-voucher system in 2019 once the challenges had been resolved therefore, given
the benefits of the e-voucher, it was important to ensure
that the government redouble its efforts in addressing the issues that had impeded its full
implementation this farming season.
ENDS
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