Fellow Malawians,
Today, I have decided to address you on the newly introduced Affordable Input Programme or AIP. It would be remiss of me, as Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, if I did not sympathize with the suffering Malawians with regard to the torturous experience that they have to endure to access and buy cheap fertilizers and seeds under the AIP.
It is not a secret that AIP is currently in a chaotic state, and it is clear that it is not serving the objective for which it was established particularly to afford poor farmers in the rural areas a chance to purchase cheap farm inputs and ensure food security at the household level.
Almost every day, we are hearing of congestion and long queues at fertilizer sales depots where people, including mothers with babies, are spending nights there under terrible conditions. We are hearing of networks that are not working; we are hearing of corruption where names of people who are not supposed to be beneficiaries have found themselves on the list of beneficiaries.
There are also issues of some suppliers selling underweight bags of farm inputs; others selling low-quality seeds and overpricing of the inputs. Now, it appears as if the government does not know what to do anymore to effectively address the situation.
We have been told that the government engaged two public organizations, ADMARC and Smallholder Farmers Fertilizer Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRFM) plus 83 private companies to supply the farm inputs to 4.2 million beneficiaries across the country.
As of 23rd November 2020, only SFFRFM, and 46 private companies have actually distributed or are still distributing their inputs whilst the others have dropped out of circulation.
According to information from relevant authorities, some of the private companies that were given the job but have not supplied the inputs include MC Chris and General Dealers, 1000 metric tonnes; First Procurement Services, 1000 metric tonnes; Ceelam investment, 11,000 metric tonnes; Tsogolani Investments, 5,000 metric tonnes; Berna Investments, 5,000 metric tonnes; Black Diamond, 1000 metric tonnes; Vision investment, 1000 metric tonnes; Water Falls International Holdings, 1000 metric tonnes; AC Limited, 1000 metric tonnes; Mcheneka trading, 1000 metric tonnes; Priscilla General Dealers, 500 metric tonnes; Innovation Business Solution, 500 metric tonnes; JJ Enterprise, 1000 metric tonnes; Sean Investment, 1000 metric tonnes; and Scaamel Investment, 5000 tonnes, among others.
The planting season is now upon us. Farmers should have had their farm inputs in their hands by now ready for planting.
Under the AIP, government was expected to make available 370,000 metric tonnes of fertilizer but so far, only 37,000 metric tonnes have been distributed across the country.
To say that AIP is a complete disaster and that we are nation that faces a hunger crisis next year would be an understatement.
The current fertilizer situation is extremely disturbing especially occurring against the backdrop of Tonse Alliance’s three-meals-a-day pledge that they made to the people of Malawi. Under the DPP government, where I served as Minister of Agriculture, a suggestion was made that we implement an electronic system of redeeming farm inputs by beneficiaries, but we shelved the idea after concluding that government and critical stakeholders in the Farm Input Subsidy Programme (FISP) may not be ready for an electronic system.
Fellow Malawians,
The AIP chaos has just vindicated us and confirmed the fact that the Tonse Alliance government rushed to implement the electronic system without comprehensively thinking it through.I am aware that ICT is crucial to the development of the country, and it may be the objective of Tonse Alliance administration to ensure that there is widespread uptake of ICT in all sectors of the economy.
There is, however, also a need for proper planning before implementing the system to avoid disenfranchising a lot of farmers across the country during crucial times like these.The planning is even more critical particularly considering the fact that multiple partners are needed to implement ICT based systems like the AIP.
This is a hopeless picture of the AIP, and at this rate, it is almost impossible to think that the affordable farm inputs can be delivered to the farmers particularly in the rural areas, let alone supplied in time for them to plant and apply fertilizers considering that the rains have already started falling.
What is more disheartening is the fact that the government does not seem to have a comprehensive plan to get us out of this mess and rescue the farmers and avert the obvious looming hunger.
I have reliable information that some traders have informed the government that they have about 182,000 metric tonnes of fertilizer in Beira and Nacala and that the government is planning to give them outright contracts for them to bring their fertilizer to Malawi and supply under AIP.
My question is: has the government verified that these companies indeed have such fertilizer stock before giving them the contracts and spending our hard-earned tax money?I would like to call upon the Tonse Alliance government to come up with workable solutions to this crisis within an urgent timeframe.
A few weeks ago, the Minister of Agriculture and other government officials assured Malawians that the AIP challenges would be resolved within two weeks. The two-week period has elapsed and the situation does not seem to be anywhere near being solved.In fact, the problems seem to be deteriorating further.
If need be, the electronic system must be abandoned and let a manual verification system be used instead.
Finally, I would like to call upon the Faith community like Public Affairs Committee (PAC); the Evangelical Association of Malawi; Episcopal Conference of Malawi; the Muslim Association of Malawi; the General Synod of the CCAP, and other faith communities in this country to hold interdenominational prayers to pray for our country to have good rains and not destructive rains as we have seen in some parts of the country.
Honourable Kondwani Nankhumwa, MP
LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION IN PARLIAMENT
27th November 2020
