Mchinji Council calms protests over AIP fertiliserK10

Mchinji district director of agriculture and natural resources Evelyn Chima has assured Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) beneficiaries that they will redeem their fertiliser on time.

She said this on Thursday when desperate AIP beneficiaries from 45 villages in Traditional Authority Mlonyeni flocked to Mchinji District Agriculture Office to express their concerns on the delay to redeem their fertiliser.

Chima said her office will put in place measures to ensure that all beneficiaries in the district are able to purchase the fertilisers without hiccups.

“Considering that time has elapsed in terms of stages of development of crops that need fertiliser, we are doing our best to ensure that they are able to purchase the fertiliser as soon as possible,” she said.

One of the protesters, Anthony Phiri, said they camped at Chapanama AIP selling point for a week hoping to buy the fertiliser after 1 000 bags were offloaded, but to their surprise, the bags were taken to another area, citing security reasons.

“Some officers demand K10 000 from beneficiaries to buy fertiliser. Again, traditional leaders prioritise their family members to redeem the fertiliser,” he said.

Kalumbe Ward councillor Yona Mtanga said he received the grievances from the people and contacted the right authorities to address the issues.

“I hope that authorities will follow up the issue and ensure that all beneficiaries redeem their fertilisers in time,” he said.

This year, there have been reports that some AIP beneficiaries are struggling to redeem their fertiliers due to network glitches, delay to deliver commodities to selling points, alleged corruption by officials in selling centres and unavailability of commodities.