Farmers stranded as AIP beneficiaries trimmed
Dejected, frustrated and stranded. This describes the situation Mary Mapulanga from Gwiramwendo Village in Traditional Authority Kunthembwe in Blantyre has found herself in after she was dropped from this year’s Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP).
The 32-year-old widow, who has been an AIP beneficiary since its inception in 2020, is one of 1.2 million farmers left out of this year’s beneficiaries’ list.
Government has reduced AIP beneficiaries from 3.7 million last growing season to 2.5 million this season, and correspondingly cut the programme’s budget from K109 billion to K97.5 billion.
The depressed woman says: “When my cooperative told me that I would not benefit from this year’s programme, I was lost because I least expected it.”
Since Mapulanga lost her husband last year, she has been struggling to raise her two children.
She argues: “I am currently failing to make ends meet and everybody knows my situation. So, when I was dropped I felt as if my world had crumbled. How can I raise K65 000 to buy fertiliser without any source of income?
“How can I afford fertiliser when I am struggling to fend for my children and myself? Our cooperative has several other single-headed households, who are as desperate as I am, who have been dropped.”
As of September, a 50 kilogramme (kg) bag of Urea was selling at K65 000 while CAN and NPK were at K63 000 and K64 000, respectively.
However, the prices are anticipated to escalate further due to the volatile economic situation, and disruptions in the global fertiliser supply chain compounded by the on-going Russia and Ukraine conflict.
Mapulanga fears her two boys, who are in Standards 2 and 4, will starve next year because she doubts if she can harvest anything without fertilisers.
“Honestly, this is giving me sleepless nights. I wished I had an opportunity to look for pieceworks,” she says.
Ufulu Cooperative chairperson Joseph Mazingati says they trimmed about half of AIP beneficiaries from the initial list of 982.
He says: “We have removed 423 and we are now remaining with 559 beneficiaries. Although we know many are frustrated and disappointed, there is nothing we could have done. So, we are yet to know what will happen to those we have trimmed.”
Our spot-check interviews with farmers and their clubs and cooperatives in Chiradzulu, Phalombe, Machinga and Rumphi established similar depressing stories.
A small-scale farmer Mary Wokomani from Chilungamo Farmers Club in Machinga District expressed fears that being dropped out of AIP will frustrate her expectations of a good harvest this year.
“If I am dropped out, I will be greatly affected and devastated because I cannot afford a bag of fertiliser currently going at K65 000,” she says.
Rumphi-based Pamodzi Cooperative chairperson Margaret Mzumara says the move to trim AIP beneficiaries will negatively affect this year’s crop output.
As part of AIP reforms, beneficiaries are being identified through farmers’ clubs and cooperatives, a departure from the old system of using traditional leaders.
AIP, a social facility which allows needy farmers to buy farm inputs at a subsidised price, is Tonse Alliance flagship election campaign promise which replaced the Farm Inputs Subsidy Programme (Fisp) implemented by the erstwhile governing Democratic Progressive Party.
When asked on Friday what will happen to needy farmers like Mapulanga who have been left out from AIP, newly-appointed Minister of Agriculture Sam Kawale said the programme has been split into four categories.
He said small-scale farmers will access AIP while those with large land will benefit from the Agriculture Commercialisation (Agcom) facility.
The minister added that some needy farmers not on AIP will be enrolled with Public Works Programme while those who cannot work will be on Social Cash Transfer Programme.
“So, farmers who are not on AIP will be in the three other categories,” said Kawale.
But Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources agriculture economist, Horace Phiri, urged the Ministry of Agriculture to provide information to farmers so that they know their categories.
He said there is need to start addressing challenges that may arise since channelling subsidies through cooperatives is a new system.
But Farmers Union of Malawi chief executive officer Jacob Nyirongo said despite government trimming the beneficiaries to 2.5 million, the figure is still significant to achieve food security at national level if the programme is well implemented.
