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Farmers in Monze District have accused Omnia Zambia of deliberately destabilizing the Government Farmer Input Support Program (FISP) in Monze District by failing to deliver fertilizer for distribution.
And Hamusonde mutli-purpose cooperatives chairperson Munankombe Mwaanza has appealed to Government to deal with Omnia Zambia firmly.
Mr. Sintemba Cooperatives Chairperson Penshi Musunga said that farmers were very disappointed with Omnia Zambia over the non delivery of fertilizer to the District.
ZANIS reports that the Cooperative Chairperson said this on behalf of farmers in an interview in Monze, yesterday.
He said that they had not received top dressing fertilizer for the past two weeks and Omnia had kept on assuring them that fertilizer would be delivered.
“This has affected many farmers who have not yet received top dressing (Urea) fertilizer as the period of time in which to apply it to the crops was running out, “Mr.Musunga said.
He added that with heavy rains currently being experienced maize crop had already started turning yellow.
He said that the situation may result into a disaster if left unchecked because most of the farmers might fail to achieve good harvest.
Meanwhile And Hamusonde mutli-purpose cooperatives chairperson Munankombe Mwaanza has appealed to Government to deal with Omnia Zambia firmly.
Mr. Mwaanza explained that government should deal with the fertilizer firm by ensuring that law takes its course for failing to deliver fertilizer as this was tantamount to breaching of contract which was awarded to the company to supply inputs.
Mr.Mwaanza said in an interview that the prevailing situation on FISP in Monze District was painting a bad picture on Government because the program had not been handled properly.
He said that Omnia had not shown interest in serving farmers who have been an integral part of the Country’s food security adding that Government must not give the company any contract to distribute inputs to farmers next farming season.
Mr.Mwaanza said that Government must ensure that Omnia delivers the fertilizer so that farmers could try to apply despite time running out.
He said that farmers were interested in knowing what caused delays by the company to deliver the inputs yet Government had paid for the inputs in full.
And Monze District Agriculture Coordinator (DACO) Justine Ngosa confirmed that Omnia had only distributed 36,684 by 50 kg bags of urea leaving a balance of 12,546 by 50 kg bags.
Mr.Ngosa said in an interview that most of the farmers had already collected D compound fertilizer but were stuck with urea.
He said that the situation was not good because crops risked being affected if no urea is applied at the right time.
The DACO said that production this year especially among small scale farmers would be affected if Omnia does not supply urea and distribute to farmers soon.
Efforts to get a comment from Omnia Zambia Southern province regional manager proved futile as his was not reachable by press time.
