Farmers in Kafue District are appealing to government to consider increasing the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) allocation.

Speaking in an interview with ZANIS, Lampson Sinyinza from Chawama Cooperative, says the allocation of inputs has been constant for some time despite the increase in the number of farmers.

Mr Sinyinza noted that following the government’s directive for farmers to form cooperatives, many new cooperatives have come on board but farmers were still receiving fewer packs of inputs.

“We are grateful to the government for the FISP programme although with the coming of new cooperatives, the allocation is no longer enough to cater for all of us,” said Mr Sinyinza.

He stated that government should consider increasing the FISP allocation to support both new and old cooperatives across the country.

“We are hoping that the government can increase the number of FISP beneficiaries from about 1 million to at least more than 2 million farmers country-wide,” he said.

Twelve thousand farmers in Kafue District are scheduled to benefit from the Farmer Input Support Programme for the 2024/2025 farming season.

Farmers in the district have also started depositing money to access their inputs from different agro-dealers.