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COMESA, UK firm ink deal to supply fertilizer to Zambia

Xinhua, September 1, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) on Wednesday announced that it has partnered with a United Kingdom (UK) firm to supply fertilizers to Zambia.

Africa's biggest trade bloc, through its specialized agency, the Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA), has partnered with London-listed African Potash Limited to start supplying fertilizer to smallholder farmers in Zambia for a period of three years.

The fertilizer is being supplied by a local supplier, Gavilon to the Zambia Cooperative Federation (ZCF), to be distributed to smallholder farmers across Zambia, an emailed statement said.

"The initial deliveries of 1,500 tonnes began going out to ZCF sales depots last week. The fertilizer supply to ZCF will continue for a minimum of three years," the statement said.

It added that the supply was in line with and meant to tap into the Zambian government's recently launched e-voucher system, in which the government was investing about 130 million U.S. dollars to support and manage an integrated ecosystem of technical and financial support for the smallholder farmers.

"We are excited to be working with African Potash and COMESA/ACTESA on this groundbreaking scheme to supply our 2 million plus farmers with timely, affordable and quality fertilizers, to be distributed via e-voucher initiative," James Chirwa, the ZCF director said.

He said the partnership will allow his institution to supply fertilizers in good time to the farmers, adding that this will help alleviate a looming humanitarian disaster brought about by the severe drought the region has suffered for the last two years.

The e-voucher system enables the purchase of inputs for smallholder farmers as well as supporting the sale of products. Under the system, the government provides financial support to the farmers through a specialized card. Endit