News

GOVERNMENT says it will include rice seed on the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) during the 2010/2011 farming season.The Zambia Agricultural Research Institute director Dr Watson Mwale and his counterpart from the Seed Control and Certification Institute (SCCI) Dr Catherine Mungoma told the National Agricultural Information Services in an interview that about 30 metric tonnes of New Rice for Africa (NERICA) seed variety had been produced and will be distributed to farmers under FISP.They however said not every farmer on the programme would benefit as the rice seed was little compared to the number of farmers being targeted by FISP.”Japanese International Co-operation is supporting the production of NERICA, a variety that is also grown in upland areas,” Dr Mwale said.

“The project has put in about US$50,000 from the Africa Rice Centre, formerly known as West Africa Rice Development Association.”Dr Mwale said the development follows the findings by the committee which was constituted early last year tasked to identify areas which could grow upland rice.He said the status then was not good in terms of rice seed and so SCCI was tasked to identify varieties which would be suitable for upland areas.“Demonstrations carried in identified places in Eastern, Northern and Western provinces indicated that NERICA rice is suitable for upland areas and that it would be accepted by farmers,” Dr Mwale explained.He said about 3000 farmers would benefit from the 30 metric tonnes of rice seed in Eastern, Northern and Western provinces.“The number of beneficiaries will increase with time because currently the quantity of rice seed produced is not enough to cover all farmers on the FISP,” Dr Mwale explained.He said more resources will be needed to increase the production of seed in order to cater for many farmers.