FISP faces fresh hiccup
With rains almost here, government is yet to finalise identification of beneficiaries for the 2015/16 Farm Input Subsidy Programme (Fisp) in some districts, a development that has irked traditional leaders in the affected areas.
The 2015/16 Subsidy Programme Progress Report dated November 10 has attributed the delay to inaccurate information transfer which has affected both farming families updates and the beneficiaries selection process.
Reads in part the report The Nation has seen: “The Ministry [of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development] has still to complete the beneficiary selection process for districts of Mzimba North, Lilongwe and Chiradzulu.
“Meanwhile the revised information for Nkhotakota and Zomba has still to be agreed by the districts before going to the ministry once again for selection process. In addition, a problem seems to have occurred in Balaka regarding missing villages that could result in a reprint.
“On farm family updates, 25 districts have been submitted, cleaned and accepted as accurate by the districts. Nkhotakota, Zomba and Mangochi have been cleaned and are with respective Dados [district agriculture development officers] for agreement.”
In Balaka, Traditional Authority (T/A) Chanthunya and colleagues have expressed disappointment over delays by government to avail them with the list of approved Fisp beneficiaries.
He said his subjects were in the dark about who is going to benefit from the programme. Further, the T/A said they do not know the number of beneficiaries.
Said Chanthunya: “It is just that the rains have delayed a little bit, otherwise the first rains would already be here and at this moment no one knows whether they are going to receive coupons.”
T/A Chanthunya, in company of 15 group village heads under his jurisdiction, expressed the sentiments on Tuesday during an interface with journalists on a media tour organised by Civil Society Agriculture Network (CisaNet).
Village head Mponda from T/A Nsamala, who was accompanied by hundreds of his subordinates, said government was in the process of creating hunger because many people were still in suspense on whether they are going to receive the coupons or not.
Said Mponda: “It is not clear where we are going to buy the fertiliser and whether the fertiliser is going to be available. Worse still, these poor farmers are expected to find K8 500 ($14.43) for the subsidised inputs which have been raised from last year’s K1 500 ($2.54). Do you see any of them affording that? This is another hunger in the making.”
According to the progress report, beneficiary selection process is slow because of the need to reprint districts.
At the point of releasing the report on November 10, the information technology team dealing with the selection had already forwarded the names to the districts for checking.
This year’s Fisp has been faced with logistical hitches, including delayed printing of coupons whose first batch for the Southern Region arrived on Tuesday. Fisp deputy national coordinator Osborne Tsoka said in an interview on Tuesday the distribution is following weather patterns.
A distribution status report indicates that 25 703 metric tons (MT) out of the 150 000MT have been distributed to various districts nationwide.
The 39 percent dispatch status means that 585 000 beneficiaries can access Urea and NPK fertiliser. n
