Minister of Agriculture Sam Kawale says it is his ministry’s wish to have the National Economic Empowerment Fund (Neef) farm inputs loans funding increased to at least K500 billion from the current K150 billion.
In an interview, the minister said the goal of the ministry is to shift from subsistence farming and invest heavily in commercial farming to achieve food sovereignty and boost exports.
He was responding to our questionnaire on what he makes of recent calls by civil society organisations (CSOs) and some stakeholders for the Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) to be abolished and have the resources channelled towards other ways of boosting agricultural production.
Said Kawale: “The Neef farm inputs loans are part of the reforms that the ministry is implementing to transform the agriculture sector.
“We would wish for over K500 billion to go towards Neef farm inputs loans. The loans are a good entry point for commercial farming. We want to empower farmers so that they cultivate on a larger scale and be able to realise more.”
He added that the ministry has been implementing the reforms for over two years now and the impact CSOs and others are seeing through Neef farm inputs loans is exactly what the ministry planned to achieve when it embarked on the reforms.
“What they are saying is what the ministry is exactly doing,” observed Kawale.
Since 2021, government has been reducing the number of AIP beneficiaries, some of whom have graduated to programmes promoting commercial farming.
In the 2021/22 financial year, AIP had 3.7 million beneficiaries before being reduced to 2.5 million in the 2022/23 financial year and to 1.5 million in the 2023/2024 financial year and currently to about 1.05 million beneficiaries.
National Advocacy Platform (NAP) recently urged government to phase out the AIP and channel resources to Neef so that it is able to reach more farmers with loans for farm inputs.
NAP member Robert Mkwezalamba, who is also Human Rights Consultative Committee chairperson, said AIP and other food security programmes that are not yielding the desired impact should be phased out and have resources allocated to Neef.
Parliament is this week starting its Budget meeting following President Lazarus Chakwera’s opening of the 51st Session of Parliament on Friday, during which he also delivered his State Of The Nation Address.
