With the rainy season at hand, farmers are growing increasingly anxious over the availability of fertiliser, an essential input for the 2025/26 farming season.
At the heart of the crisis is over 200 000 metric tonnes of fertiliser stuck at ports due to the country’s ongoing foreign exchange shortage.
Yona Mtanga, a mega farmer from Mchinji District, said he requires 1 300 bags of fertiliser for his 160-hectare farm, but he has not secured a single bag this year.
His suppliers say they are yet to stock the commodity.
“By this time last year, I had bought basal dressing fertiliser which is required first. But I do not have any. I have contacted a few suppliers and they have told me that fertiliser is on its way. My expectation is it will be made available on time to avert hunger next year,” said Mtanga.
Another anxious smallholder farmer Numeri Samuel from Mitundu in Lilongwe is clueless about where he will get the commodity.
He’s banking on a government subsidy programme whose future remains uncertain and says current market prices are far beyond his reach.
Samuel said fertiliser prices being offered are beyond his reach.
Fertiliser Association of Malawi (FAM) warns the country may be hit by limited supply of fertiliser in the 2025\26 farming season as companies are failing to import the commodity due to forex shortages.
In an interview with Nation on Sunday, executive administrative officer Hannah Makhambera said fertiliser stocks are low, but its members are failing to bring the commodity in the country due to forex limitations.
She says if the forex situation does not improve, fertiliser imports will fall short of the country’s total requirements of 475 000 metric tonnes.
Makhambera said this could have implications in both food production and security at household and national level.
“The association’s members currently hold a total of 267 189 metric tonnes of fertiliser. Of this amount, only 26 962 metric tonnes is in our warehouses while 158 628 metric tons is in transit and 81 600 metric tonnes is on the higher seas coming into the country. We recommend forex availability for our members. Most of the fertiliser is at the ports,” she said.
Despite the uncertainty on Affordable Input Programme, state-owned Smallholder Farmers Fertiliser Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRFM) has also imported substantial amount of fertilizer in readiness of this year’s farming season
SFFRFM director of commercial services Alli Chiwoko said as of October 1, they had about 40 000 metric tonnes of fertiliser in their warehouses.
He said more fertiliser is on its way, but could not disclose the amount.
Chiwoko allayed fears of fertiliser shortages, saying they will include liquid fertiliser on subsidy programme to increase availability of the commodity to smallholder farmers.
“Liquid fertiliser has been tested and its effectiveness has been justified. That way, we will facilitate easy access to fertilisers for farmers,” he said.
In a separate interview, an agriculture expert Ronald Chilumpha said the expectation is that farmers have production inputs ready by early October.
He said it is a step back in this year’s farming cycle that private fertiliser companies are struggling to import inorganic fertiliser to Malawi.
“Government must consider assisting the fertiliser importers with forex now and that fertiliser must be treated as an essential commodity as it is the case with fuel and drugs. We have little time to do all this and considering that we are coming from an election which has had great impact on farming season,” said Chilumpha.
Minister of Finance Joseph Mwanamvekha said in an interview last Thursday he is aware of foreign exchange challenges facing the country.
He said President Peter Mutharika has already engaged the donor community to help in alleviating foreign exchange challenges on top of helping out with the actual fertiliser.
Mwanamvekha added that fertiliser is top on the list of the new administration on top of food, fuel and foreign exchange.
