Government plans to empower about 5000 people in Kaputa under the Emergency Wetland Cropping Programme.

Northern Province Acting Community Development Officer, Martin Mwansa confirms that Kaputa will be given the highest number of beneficiaries.

During his tour of district to monitor the ongoing selection of potential beneficiaries,  Mr Mwansa says he is touched by the destruction caused  by the floods that the district experienced in the 2023–2024 farming season.

He said this when he paid a courtesy call to Kaputa District Commissioner Cosmas Mwaya at his office in Kaputa, where he has gone to monitor the selection of beneficiaries under the programme.

“We are aware that your district was not affected by the drought, but your crops were submerged in water due to floods in the area,” he said.

He said the implementation of programme in the district will therefore help people produce more food and prevent pending food shortages.

The emergency wetland programme is aimed at cushioning the effects of hunger as a result of the climatic conditions that affected the country.

And Kaputa District Commissioner Cosmas Mwaya has pledged to closely monitor the emergency wetland programme.

Mr Mwaya said people in the district should take advantage of the government’s good will to allocate the highest number of beneficiaries in the province to grow more food.

“For a long time, I have been complaining when we have government projects because we are usually given a small number of people to benefit, but this time around we have no excuse but to put in the best,” he said.

Meanwhile, Chief Mukupa Katandula of the Tabwa people in Kaputa district described maize as white copper, which will earn a lot of income.

He said there is a need for his subjects to engage in agriculture to be food secure adding that government must consider constructing a farrow to enhance the wetland cropping in the area.

And Nufred Manda, a potential beneficiary, said that people are ready to implement emergency wetland cropping.

Mr. Manda said many people grow rice and other vegetables; therefore, the emergency wetland programme is not a new phenomenon to them.

“Most of us here are already into farming and gardening, so this programme is not new to us,” he said.

He has since thanked the government for coming up with an intervention aimed at addressing the pending shortage of food in homes.