Community members in Traditional Authority (T/A) Lulanga in Mangochi have asked duty-bearers to address challenges encountered in the implementation of the 2025/26 Farm Inputs Subsidy Programme (Fisp) in the district.
To ensure a smooth implementation of the initiative in the coming 2026/27 farming season, community social accountability facilitators and people from 26 group village heads in T/A Lulanga met on Monday to assess the implementation of Fisp and recommend improvements to duty-bearers.
Through a structured scoring questionnaire, participants assessed the effectiveness of services provided and highlighted challenges encountered.
The group’s chairperson Afili Kassim said they took stock of what happened previously and how best to improve the programme in future.
“As facilitators, we are consolidating names of affected individuals and we plan to present these issues during upcoming engagements with duty-bearers, particularly the Smallholder Farmers Fertiliser Revolving Fund of Malawi [SFFRFM],” he said.
One of the participants, Fatima Juma, commended the government for dispatching farm inputs on time this season, a recommendation they raised during last year’s scorecard exercise.
“We are grateful for this positive gesture, especially as our community is hard-to-reach. We are also happy with this meeting because we will discuss the challenges we faced,” she said.
However, concerns were raised regarding beneficiaries whose national identity cards (IDs) were scanned and redemption cash paid, but did not receive inputs before the programme closed.
Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency (Csat) project officer Jacob Phiri, whose organisation trained the facilitators, thanked their efforts.
“Now that we have gathered community feedback, the next step is to engage duty-bearers and hear how they will respond,” he said.
Csat organised the activity under the Right to Food Programme with support from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development through Welthungerhilfe.
