The Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development has acknowledged that technical glitches in the Farm Inputs Subsidy Programme (Fisp) system have affected some beneficiaries’ ability to redeem subsidised fertiliser.
Ministry’s spokesperson Salome Gangire said they have received complaints similar to those raised by beneficiaries in Traditional Authority (T/A) Njema in Mulanje District, where some farmers have failed to redeem Urea fertiliser after initially collecting NPK.
“We have not received a report specifically for T/A Njema of Mulanje. However, similar complaints have been received from other districts. We are going to follow up on this matter of T/A Njema,” Gangire said. She added that in some areas, arrests have been made over suspected anomalies in the system.
One of the affected beneficiaries, Mary Muliba of Khumbanyiwa Village in T/A Njema, said she only managed to redeem a bag of NPK fertiliser in December after being informed that Urea was not yet available.
“When Urea came last week, I went to the depot, but I was told I could not redeem my bag because the system showed that I had already collected it,” she explained.
Another farmer, Walusa Makono from Maliera Village in the same area, said she faced a similar problem, leaving her unable to apply Urea to her maize crop this season.
Concerns were also raised by Charles Saona, another would-be beneficiary from T/A Njema, who described the challenges as widespread.
“In all villages, people are complaining about being told that their cards do not show they are beneficiaries for Urea or both fertilisers,” Saona said.
“For example, in Motola Village, 52 beneficiaries went to redeem fertiliser, but only 40 were assisted after officials re-entered them into the system. The remaining 12 were left out. We suspect some officials are deliberately tampering with the system to manipulate beneficiary records.”
However, a member of the area’s development committee, Samson Mulanje, said government has reportedly directed Mulanje District Council to compile a list of affected beneficiaries so that they can receive their unredeemed fertiliser.
Efforts to independently verify this claim were unsuccessful as attempts to contact the district commissioner did not yield results.
From a technical standpoint, information systems expert Samson Kasambara attributed the irregularities to possible weaknesses in the Fisp software architecture.
He cited system design limitations, weak data synchronisation and improper handling of partial redemptions as potential causes. According to Kasambara, beneficiaries who redeem NPK fertiliser offline may later face challenges if data synchronisation fails or is incorrectly processed.
“In such cases, the system may wrongly mark the entire redemption as complete, preventing beneficiaries from later redeeming Urea,” he explained.
“Poor redemption logic, where a single flag is used for all fertiliser types, can also cause the system to assume that beneficiaries have redeemed everything once one fertiliser is claimed.”
To address the recurring problems and rebuild public confidence, Kasambara recommended introducing separate redemption statuses for different fertiliser types, strengthening offline-to-online synchronisation with automatic validation, and creating a beneficiary dispute resolution module.
United States-based information technology expert Roy Chanunkha agreed with Kasambara, urging the ministry to urgently implement measures to eliminate the challenges.
From a food security perspective, Civil Society Agriculture Network (Cisanet) national director Elizabeth Namaona said the reported challenges are worrying.
“Delays and system inconsistencies in fertiliser redemption undermine the effectiveness of Fisp, especially for resource-constrained farmers who depend on timely access to inputs to achieve optimal yields,” she said. “If not addressed, these challenges risk reducing production and weakening both household and national food security.”
Agriculture expert Tamani Nkhono-Mvula echoed the concerns, describing the situation as a serious threat to food security.
“To deal with the problem, the ministry should ensure the programme starts on time and is properly planned. There is also a need to audit the system, as the possibility of foul play cannot be ruled out,” he said.
