Govt to support 900,000 small scale farmers

—Chief government Spokesperson, Kennedy Sakeni, says government plans to support 900,000 small scale farmers under the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock’s Farmer Input Support Program (FISP) in the 2013/ 2014 farming season.

And government says the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock has in public interest decided to cancel and re-advertise the tender for the supply of top dressing fertilizer.

Mr Sakeni says resulting from the FISP program, the Ministry of Agriculture had advertised for the supply of 67, 765.5 metric tonnes of top dressing fertilizer in March this year.

In a statement to ZANIS in Lusaka, Mr Sakeni said the tender procedure closed on 9^th April 2013 and 18 bids were received and evaluated in line with the requirements of the procurement regulations.

He said the evaluation process included verification of declared physical stocks in which challenges were experienced in the process of evaluating the bids which resulted in the cancellation of the bid.

Mr Sakeni, who is also Information and Broadcasting Services Minister, said the cancellation is in line with Statutory Instrument no 63 of 2011.

He said the Ministry of Agriculture is mindful of its position with respect to the agricultural season and will work expeditiously to ensure that the top dressing fertilizer is produced in good time.