THE Department of Agriculture in Mwense District has appealed to the government to consider decentralising the bidding and selection of Agro-dealers to district level.

The appeal follows failure by most Agro-dealers shortlisted to carry out the distribution of the farming inputs under the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) in the 2024 -2025 farming season to take up the task in the district.

Mwense District Acting Assistant Marketing Officer, Benson Banda, has disclosed that out of the over 40 Agro dealers engaged, only six had managed to commence the distribution of farming inputs to small scale farmers in the district.

ZANIS reports that Mr Banda expressed concern that the low number of Agro-dealers involved had slowed down the input distribution exercise stating that so far 1,817 farmers out of the target of over 3,500 have fully redeemed their inputs under the E-voucher system.

He, however, stated that over 1,600 had partially redeemed their inputs.

Mr Banda explained that the six Agro-dealers were overwhelmed with the number of farmers adding that this has contributed to delays in the input distribution process.

“We are hoping that the government will decentralise the selection of Agro-dealers to district level the next farming season as this will enable our department to easily identify reliable suppliers to work with,” Mr Banda said.

Meanwhile, Mr Banda advised farmers to plant early or medium maturity seed varieties for the best yields for the 2024/2025 farming season.