The Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement, Anxious Masuka has said farmers should account for all inputs that they have accessed through government-supported schemes.
Some farmers benefitted from fertilisers and seeds through the Presidential Winter Wheat Scheme and National Enhanced Agricultural Productivity Scheme or Command Scheme pledging to pay back after harvest.
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Pindula News present Masuka’s statement in full below.
1. Following the Government policy thrust to eliminate wheat imports by promoting expanded local wheat production and productivity, the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement advises that the deadline for the planting period has been extended to Tuesday 15 June 2021, with a revised seeding rate of 150kg per hectare. Farmers are encouraged to make frantic efforts to plant their wheat ahead of this deadline so that the targeted hectarage to ensure our country of national wheat self-sufficiency can be attained from this season onwards in line with the Agriculture and Food Systems Transformation Strategy, the Agriculture Recovery Plan and the National Development Strategy 1 and in pursuit of the noble vision of becoming an empowered and prosperous upper-middle-income society by 2030.
2. In this regard, farmers should account for all the inputs that they have accessed through the government-supported schemes (Presidential Winter Wheat Scheme and National Enhanced Agricultural Productivity Scheme / Command Scheme). Any farmer who has not used wheat inputs for these schemes after the planting deadline, should return these inputs to their nearest GMB depot by 20 June 2021.
3. Monitoring teams have now been deployed throughout the country and a satellite-aided wheat monitoring scheme has been activated.
4. I wish you all a most productive wheat production season. I thank you.