fertiliser |
THE Government
expects the price of fertiliser in the country to reduce as President
Edgar Lungu officially commissions the US $5 million Zambian fertiliser
blending Plant at the Lusaka South Multi-Facility Economic Zone (MFEZ)
today.
Agriculture Minister Dora Siliya says increased fertiliser
production and supply will enable the price of the commodity to fall and
ensure that farmers have no difficulties accessing the inputs.
Ms Siliya said this
in a speech read for her by Ministry of Agriculture Permanent Secretary
Julius Shawa at the Lusaka South MFEZ during the prelude to the
commissioning of the blending plant, which is a subsidiary of Export
Trading Group (ETG).
"As Minister
responsible for Agriculture I want to see increased production of
fertiliser so that our farmers have increased access to the commodity
and with increased production and supply the price of fertiliser will
fall," she said.
Ms Siliya said her
ministry was promoting crop diversification that could only be achieved
if farmers had increased access to fertiliser.
She also said that
ETG's investment was in line with the Government's aspirations on
agricultural development aimed at ensuring value addition in the
agricultural chain saying that ETG's initial investments were in
distribution and trading.
Ms Siliya said this
in a speech Ms Siliya said it was pleasing that ETG had now moved on to
adding value by investing in facilities like the fertiliser blending
plant.
Zambia National
Farmers Union president Jervis Zimba also said that fertiliser prices
were expected to start reducing overtime because the new plant would
have an impact on the market.
Mr Zimba said that
would be the only way farmers could sustain their business and
comparative pricing of key inputs, especially fertiliser would bring
benefits to farmers.
He said blended
fertiliser was the type farmers needed because the benefits to the crops
and soil were many besides assuring that Zambian farmers were ready to
grow with ETG if they were offered good prices.
ETG inputs Zambia
Limited programmes manager Nyambe Luhila said in an interview that the
plant had a number of sections, one of them being that which processed
lime and manure to make them ready for blending with Nitrogen
Phospherous and Potassium fertiliser.
Mr Luhila said
another component of the plant was the re-bagging section, which
involved packaging to suit small scale farmers by having as low as 5
packages.
He said the plant
would start by creating 123 permanent jobs with plans to increase the
number and currently the company was dealing with about 400 agro dealers
countrywide and that the target was to increase the number of agro
dealers to 1,000 in 2018.
Zambian Fertilisers
plant manager James Chisenga said the company had increased its
production capacity from 800 bags a day to 8000 owing to the
introduction of more machinery.ETG Agri inputs global chief executive
officer Ashish Lakhotia said the Group's focus was not just to make
money but to create a better world and make the people it dealt with
happy.
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