By Wezzie Gausi:
The Ministry of Agriculture says it will be rolling out a two-year project pegged at K28 billion that will target 36,000 beneficiaries to start using organic fertiliser in the country.
This follows the ministry’s implementing a 10-year Soil Health and Fertiliser Use Strategy.
According to Minister of Agriculture Sam Kawale, 3,000 farmers will be selected from each of the 12 districts using the National Agriculture Management Information System (Namis).
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He said this implementation plan follows the passing of the Fertiliser Act, which is currently in force.
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“This will be a pilot phase. After the success of its implantation, more beneficiaries will be added to access organic fertiliser.
“All these technologies have been approved by the Ministry of Agriculture Technology Clearing Committee, and they are under commercialisation to be made available on the market, either AIP or commercial farming,” Kawale said.
Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture Chairperson Sameer Suleman said although the technologies are good, sustainability matters.
He said currently the country is failing on AIP implementation.
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“It is a good thing to have organic fertilisers introduced to the country but not everyone is going to benefit. The issue is for the government to reduce the prices of fertiliser so that every farmer is able to access the commodity,” Suleman said.
Apart from organic fertilisers, the Ministry will introduce new types of fertilisers which include Nano Urea, Nano NPK, Nano DAP, Organo Mineral Fertilisers, as well as maize inoculants.
