MBABANE – The Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Sydney Simelane, today made an extra effort to encourage farmers to use the Agriculture Subsidy Program.
The Government program provides farmers with 65% of the inputs they need for each year so that farmers aren’t limited by resources in how they produce food for the country. The Principal Secretary revealed that 15,279 farmers benefitted from the program last year.
Speaking to the media, the Principal Secretary revealed that the Ministry is happy with the positive response from farmers who have rushed to pick up their farming inputs for the year. Speaking during the press briefing, Simelane remarked that, “Government has determined that 35% is expected from the farmer, and Government will be expected to subsidize the remaining 65%. When you consider this in terms of maize, this means that the farmer will contribute E4,900 per hectare and then the Government subsidy will add the remaining E9,100.”
“I just want to say that the reason I say per hectare is because 1 hectare has been the limit in previous years. However, this year Government has seen it appropriate to remove the limit, such that any farmers who want to grow two, three, or four hectares can also do that through the subsidy program.”
Principal Secretary Simelane also encouraged farmers to complete their processes with the program before the deadline of 31 October.
if FARMERS TO USE an AGRICULTURE SUBSIDY PROGRAM, hope everything will be stabilized. and all could end up in win -a win approach. Ethiopia should draw lessons on this issue.
I heard about this issue at UNWGIC 2022, held in Hyderabad, India. The Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Sydney Simelane mentioned well for the participants of the congress.
I am a guy from Ethiopia, who asked about food security with the opportunities at hand we have and malaria prevalence in East Africa