Reasons for failure to graduate from the farmer input support programme by small scale farmers: the case of Ilume, Mkushi district.
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Date
2022-07-16
Authors
Laki, Claremont
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Volume Title
Publisher
The University of Zambia
Abstract
Since 2002, the Government of Zambia has been funding a farmer input support programme (FISP) in order to increase household food security and incomes. The program specifies that beneficiaries will collect subsidised inputs from the program for three (3) farming seasons only and graduate thereafter but however, no beneficiary has ever graduated to date. The purpose of this study was to establish the reasons for failure to graduate from the FISP by small scale famers of Ilume agriculture camp of Mkushi district. The specific objectives of this study are to establish the farmer‟s awareness of FISP graduation pathways; to establish the farm management practices among beneficiaries that would lead to self-sufficiency and surplus production and finally to investigate the sufficiency of inputs received by each FISP beneficiary. A qualitative approach was used and a purposive sampling procedure was used to select three (3) Ministry of Agriculture camp officers, while a snow bow technique was used to identify 40 small scale farmers who have benefited from the input programme for four years and above since there is was no sampling frame. Interview guides were used for MoA officials while three (3) Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were held with farmers. Semi- structured questionnaires were also administered to individual farmers. Thematic content analysis was used to analyse the data, while Microsoft excel was also used to come up with tables and charts for data presentation. The results of the study show that FISP beneficiaries were not aware of any graduation pathways and conventional farming methods were the most popular among which was in contradiction to the highly recommended conservation farming methods. The results also showed that each FISP beneficiary receive one pack consisting of 2 x 50kgs of basal fertilizer, 2 x 50kgs of urea fertilizer and 1 x 10kgs of hybrid maize seed which are not sufficient. The study concluded that the possible reasons FISP beneficiaries do not graduate are that they are not aware of any graduation pathways; the lack of use of best farming methods have led to perpetual low yields and the insufficient quantities of inputs each farmer receive was only enough for food security, but not enough to lead farmers to increased incomes and poverty reduction. This led the FISP not to achieve the objective of household food security, improved incomes and poverty reduction in full. The study recommended that beneficiaries should be made aware of graduation pathways while the use of conservation farming techniques should not only be recommended, but should be made mandatory to all benefiting farmers. The study also recommended that the government should consider increasing the inputs for each farmer to 2 times the current quantities. This will make farmers achieve the FISP objectives thereby leading to graduation.
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Keywords
Agriculture and state--Zambia. , Farmer input support programme.