Over 3,000 households in Kapiri Mposhi District have been targeted under the emergency wetlands cropping sub programme of the Food Security Pack (FSP) to venture into winter crop production as a response to the drought situation in the country.
Kapiri Mposhi District Community Development Officer, Grace Shakumbila says households near wetlands and sustainable water sources to facilitate irrigation are expected to be empowered with maize seed, vegetable seeds, pesticides and fertilisers to venture into winter maize and vegetable gardens for enhanced household food security.
ZANIS reports that Ms Shakumbila noted that the emergency wetlands cropping programme will supplement the FSP programme currently benefiting 700 households under the traditional wetland cropping program in the district.
” Each enumerated household will get one bag of top dressing, one bag of D compound and five Kilogrammes of either white or orange maize seed while others will receive vegetable seeds and pesticides and they should guarantee expected usage of these inputs and availability of water,” Ms Shakumbila said.
Meanwhile, Central Province Community Development Officer, Disckson Chipeta says the district has the highest caseload of beneficiaries out of 26,100 households targeted under the programme in all the 11 districts across the Province.
And speaking during inspection of potential wetlands for programme implementation, Ministry of Community Development and Social Services, Chief Risk Management Officer, Miselo Chita expressed optimism of programme success due to the many wetlands and dambos in the district.
Mr Miselo pointed out that officers from the department of Community Development are currently enumerating beneficiaries and identifying suitable dambos and wetland areas in the in-beneficiary districts across the country.
He added that farmers could be empowered to grow winter maize and engage in gardening of a variety of vegetables.
He indicated that distribution of the inputs will commence soon after the enumeration exercise.
“The emergency wetland cropping sub program is a response by the ministry to the Presidential declaration of the drought as a national disaster which resulted in a hunger situation affecting 84 districts across the nation,” Mr Miselo said.
