Fears over low yield from AIP

There are fears that the 2022/23 Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) may register a low yield due to, among other things, delays to supply farmers with improved maize seed and low seed redemption rate.

Seed redemption rate relates to the amount of seeds that companies make and put on the market for farmers to buy and plant.

According to projections by Seed Traders Association of Malawi (Stam), seed redemption rate during the current growing season will not be higher than 85 percent.

The association attributes the previous season’s 72 percent seed redemption rate to some interventions.

But government has played down the fears about low yield this season because of the seed aspect, saying at least 12 seed companies have been identified to supply the seeds.

Minister of Agriculture Sam Kawale told Weekend Nation in an interview this week that government has subsidised each type of seed with K5 000, saying for seed selling at K9 000, farmers are topping up with K4 000.

In an interview on Tuesday, Stam business development officer Supply Chisi pointed out that the redemption of seed is directly linked to availability of fertiliser, adding that delays to supply beneficiaries with inputs this year has affected the cycle.

He also observed that farmers have not fully recovered from the effects of Covid-19 that paralysed economic activities and, also, poor grain prices, hence their inability to top up the required amount of money to buy the certified seed.

He also pointed out that there is more emphasis on fertiliser than seeds, but insisted that there is direct correlation between improved seed and fertiliser on yield.

During the launch of this year’s AIP in Dedza last month, President Lazarus Chakwera admitted that the 2022/23 programme has been an uphill task. He said the programme’s challenges included fertiliser suppliers’ sabotage, public officers’ incompetence and commodities competition on the global market.

Said Chisi: “First, is to equate the seed and fertiliser being given to farmers under the programme. The two bags of fertiliser require 10kgs of certified maize seed. Second, is to consider early start of the programme, for example, early September. This will give ample time to allow all farmers access the seed and plant with the first rains.

“Thirdly, is to ensure that there is a vibrant grain market, and serious enforcement of the government set farm gate prices. Lastly, government should consider increasing its contribution to seed package to reduce the farmer top-up burden.”

All factors constant, Chisi said the average yield for farmers that planted grain was 0.7 metric tonne per hectare (MT/ha) in 2020 and 0.82 MT/ha in 2021.

He further said that for farmers that used certified maize seed, their yield was 2.4MT/ha in 2020 and 2.7 MT/ha in 2021, adding that the seed industry has certified seed varieties yielding 5 MT/ha to 12MT/ha under ordinary farmer conditions.

Mwapata Institute, an independent agricultural think-tank, agrees that there is a direct correlation between use of improved seed and fertiliser on yield.

The institute’s executive director William Chadza pointed out in an interview that the yield story is incomplete without considering issues of soil health.

According to Chadza, having improved seed and fertiliser does not necessarily translate to high yields, but all the agronomy and soil health issues must play their part to generate yield increases.

He said: “There is a need to strengthen government support for access to improved seeds by farmers. One such way is through interventions on the price of seed and encouraging farmers to establish seed banks.”

Random interviews with lawmakers, especially from the Central Region, show that farm inputs started arriving in their constituencies last weekend.

One legislator who refused to be named claimed that he was using his own resources to bring fertiliser into his constituency.

Asked on how much improved seed has been ferried into his constituency, the legislator said the priority is on fertiliser “because farmers already planted their maize”.

On his part, Mwanza Central legislator Nicholas Dausi complained that network hitches affected accessibility of the inputs last week, but said the situation has since improved.

Dausi said what is worrisome is that beneficiaries are now being asked to be in groups of 40 or 50 and share 15 bags of fertiliser, a development he said may impact productivity.

Last month government announced that it has trimmed the number of beneficiaries for this year’s AIP from 3.7 million to 2.5 million.

Former agriculture Principal Secretary Sandram Maweru told Parliament that fertiliser purchases for this year’s farm inputs have been a nightmare, saying first, the appropriated budget of K97.5 billion with the global prices of fertiliser could not attain and sustain the required number of beneficiaries the ministry was guided to serve; hence the reduction to 2.5 million,

He also said that out of the K97.5 billion allocated, K29 billion was spent on 31 500 MT of fertiliser, with fertiliser costing K25 billion while logistics consumed K4 billion.

Maweru spoke before a joint parliamentary committee looking into issues of misprocurement and mismanagement of public resources.

The inquiry came against the background of a K750 million botched fertiliser import deal that forced the President to fire minister of Agriculture Lobin Lowe and his deputy Madalitso Kambauwa Wirima for failing to provide leadership on the AIP programme.

Maweru also faced the music as his contract was terminated.

Initially sold as universal subsidy by the Tonse Alliance during the campaign for the court-sanctioned fresh presidential election held on June 23 2020, the AIP turned out to be a near five-fold expansion of the Farm Inputs Subsidy Programme implemented by the Democratic Progressive Party administration that targeted 900 000 farming families for less than K30 billion per year. On the other hand, AIP targeted 4.2 million households for K158.3 billion before the number of beneficiaries was trimmed to around 3.6 million in its inaugural year.