President Lazarus Chakwera has launched this year’s Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) where close to 1.1 million households will access subsidised farm inputs including fertiliser and seeds.
Speaking during the launch at Dzundu Primary School ground in Traditional Authority (T/A) Symon in Neno District, the President called on farmers to adopt fertiliser multiplication as a way to reduce dependency on the commodity.
Government is touting fertiliser multiplication as one of the strategy for graduating farmers from AIP to commercial farming and Chakwera said multiplication of fertiliser is also meant to help restore nutrients in the soil.
He said: “About 1.1 million Malawian households will benefit from the 2024/25 Affordable Inputs Programme [AIP]. And improved productivity will ensure lasting food security.”
During its inaugural in June 2020, the number of beneficiaries was 3.7 million, which has gradual ly been reducing over the years. At 1.1 million, the number is now almost the same as what the Democratic Progressive Party administration used to target under Farm Inputs Subsidy Programme.
In the 2021/22 financial year , government listed 3.7 million farmers, before reducing it to 2.5 million in the 2022/23 growing season and further trimmed it to 1.5 million in 2023/24 season.
This year, government has allocated K161 billion towards the programme. While 1 048 445 farmers will access fertilisers and seeds; 6 500 farming households from Balaka and Mwanza districts will receive she goats.
The President said government i s implementing other commercially-al igned initiatives such as mega farms with the aim of achieving an inclusive viable agricultural sector in the country.
In his speech, Minister of Agricultur e Sam Kawale said every AIP beneficiary is being encouraged to use their two bags to produce 10 bags of compost or Mbeya fertiliser and get a good harvest at the end of the growing season.
“From the harvest, farmers will be able to sell some maize and buy inorganic fertiliser to produce more bags of compost fertiliser.
“This way, farmers will transition from AIP to loans under the National Economic Empowerment Fund [Neef] and eventually to the Agricultura l Commercialisation Project as mega farmers,” he said.
On preparations for the AIP, Kawale said the ministry has mobilised 1 500 trucks to transport fertiliser and about 41 354.3 metr ic tonnes (MT) of the required 104 845MT fertiliser has been secured, representing about 40 percent of the requirement.
He said 39 354.3MT of the secured fertiliser is under collateral and in Smallholder Farmers Fertiliser Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRFM) warehouses.
“The fertiliser that is readily available is a carryover stock of 2000MT. The fertiliser under collateral will only be released for distribution once government make s payments,” said the minister.
Over the past four years, AIP has been rocked by logistical glitches ,including delayed redeeming of coupons and unavailability of stock in some areas.
However, Kawale assured that 579 selling points across the country have been established to ease the redeeming challenges.
“So far, the ministry is working with ot h e r stakeholders to prevent network glitches which plagued the programme last year,” he said.
In her speech, Farmers Union of Malawi president Maness Nkhata applauded the government for maintaining the price of AIP fertiliser at K15 000 per bag.
She, however, called for measures to ensure that farmers are not forced to pay bribes to purchase inputs under AIP.
“To my fellow farmers, please do not sell this AIP fertiliser. Let us use the fertiliser in our farms so that we should have enough food in our households next year,” she said.
Under the programme, each farmer will access a 50 kilogramme (kg) bag of Urea, 50kg bag of NPK and maize seed
