Government dares Fisp private sector to deliver
Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development has dared suppliers from the private sector, selected for the first time to participate in the crucial Farm Input Subsidy Programme (Fisp), to fully own the programme.
Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development Allan Chiyembekeza asked the suppliers to serve rural areas as well.
He issued the warning to the suppliers in Blantyre at Smallholder Farmers Fertiliser Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRFM) offices on Monday. SFFRFM and produce and inputs trader Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) are the public sector players in the programme.
The minister’s remarks come after the Fisp Logistics Report dated December 15 2015 revealed that the private sector who had been given 12 districts to dispatch 40 000 metric tonnes (MT) of fertiliser had withdrawn from Chitipa, Nkhata Bay and Nsanje due to the terrain, thereby heaping the burden on Admarc.
Speaking in an interview yesterday, Chiyembekeza said it is important that suppliers deliver quickly and in all areas.
He said: “The meeting indeed took place and it is true that government told the private sector to go in all areas and no choose which areas they want, otherwise they are proving incompetent. How can we entrust them with the programme if they will not deliver to certain parts?”
According to the minister, there will be an evaluation of the private sector’s performance and recommendations after the programme.
But spokesperson for the private sector suppliers, Veria Kumwenda, denied that the private sector had withdrawn.
She said they were offered to deliver to certain parts of the country and they turned down.
Said Kumwenda: “This is the first time we were included in this programme and therefore faced some challenges. But we did not withdraw, we simply turned down the offer.”
However, she asked for more time to give the reason behind their decision.
Kumwenda said as of yesterday, the private sector had delivered 19 600MT out of 33 600MT allocation. On the other hand, SFFRFM and Admarc have delivered 60 percent of their share to suppliers’ depots.
This year’s Fisp has been riddled with several hiccups ranging from slow fertiliser delivery to delivery of coupons for beneficiaries to redeem their inputs. n
