The Ministry of Agriculture has missed its targets to deliver agricultural inputs to local farmers. Stakeholders in the agriculture sector have expressed concern that the repeated delays would worsen food insecurity in the country.
The ministry set August and September as the deadlines to produce lists of suppliers and beneficiaries, respectively. However, the government is yet to deliver with forex shortages and other logistical factors delaying progress.
In an interview yesterday, Ministry of Agriculture Principal Secretary Dickxie Kampani said the ministry is “finalising somethings” about the programme, but did not provide any additional information on the factors that caused the delays or present a revised timeline for the supply and distribution of fertiliser.
Grain Traders Association of Malawi president Grace Mijiga Mhango has faulted the government for perennial delays in implementing the AIP, and cautioned that any disruption to the programme would worsen the country’s food crisis.
“Any further delay will affect production. Giving inputs late is as good as throwing away the inputs. We are in a way creating hunger ourselves,” she said in an interview. “The delay seems to be a pattern and we wonder why it keeps happening.”
In February last year, President Lazarus Chakwera instructed the Ministry of Agriculture to complete all procurement processes by June to ensure that farmers access input before the onset of the first rains but logistical problems, including forex shortages derailed the plans.
The problem persists despite the Reserve Bank of Malawi rationing the country’s low forex reserves to the purchase of fertiliser, fuel and essential medicines.
Agreeing with Mhango, Fertiliser Association of Malawi executive administration officer Mbawaka Phiri reiterated that the government should have moved faster this year.
When asked if the country has enough fertiliser in stock, she said: “On the commercial side, we have enough fertiliser to carter for the farmers but we cannot say on the AIP without knowing who has been awarded the contracts.”
The timely distribution of farm inputs is necessary to ensure that farmers get decent yields at the end of the year, particularly now that the June 2024 issue of the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee report projected that 5.7 million people would require food assistance.
This year alone, government required $446 million (about K780.9 billion) to provide relief support to nine million people affected by El Nino. The Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services’s seasonal forecast for 2024/2025 predicts that the rainfall season will start mid- November in southern Malawi districts and spread to other areas in the coming weeks. The onset is expected to be slightly late compared to the previous season, and the rainfall season is likely to be longer in most districts.
