The United Party for National Development, UPND in Eastern Province has condemned the decision by government to temporarily suspending the distribution of farming inputs to farmers under the E-voucher system in Chipata district.
UPND Provincial spokesperson, Victor Mbuzi told Breeze News that the suspension is uncalled for because it will contribute to poor crop yields as the exercise has already delayed.
Mr. Mbuzi says the issue of investigating farmers, who may have accessed the inputs twice, should not be a reason to suspend the exercise.
He says the exercise should have continued despite the investigations as most farmers have delayed to apply fertilizer to their crops.
Mr. Mbuzi alleged that there may be other reasons why government has suspended the exercise such as lack of money to load the cards and not the investigations that only involve about ten farmers.
He called on government to quickly resume the distribution of farming inputs in Chipata.
Early this week, government unearthed a scam where some farmers had accessed the inputs twice after banks erroneously credited their e-voucher cards twice.