CHALLENGES OF ELECTRONIC VOUCHER SYSTEM

Abstract

The failure of the agricultural sector to provide livelihoods for people in rural areas is considered a major factor that contributes to rural poverty and food insecurity. The Zambian government started the Farmer Input Support Program (FISP) in 2002 in order to stimulate the growth of the agricultural sector and to improve the performance of the smallholders. However, the management of the FISP manual system has had challenges resulting in high operational cost and/or decimal impact on smallholder performance and graduation.

The E-voucher system has been in operation for the past two farming seasons and conflicting reports for its successes and failures have been reported in Zambian’s daily papers as well as published research articles.