Members of Parliament (MPs) on Tuesday raised suspicions about allocation of Farm Input Subsidy Programme (Fisp) resources to other Malaw Government departments besides the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security budget.
In their contributions during the Committee of Supply, the legislators asked government to ensure that such allocations are normalised and put under the rightful ministry.
The MPs first made the observation in their contribution to the vote for the Department of Nutrition, HIV and Aids and the National Aids Commission (NAC), which was later deferred to allow the Minister of Finance to explain and rectify some problems observed.
Lilongwe Msozi South MP Vitus Dzoole Mwale said it was worrying and surprising that several departments, including State House, were involved in the fertiliser subsidy programme when a ministry is there to specifically deal with that.
He said: “To be honest and for this House to do a decent job, let us have a specific ministry to deal with the subsidy [programme]. It is imperative that we normalise the monies to do with subsidy [programme].”
The same observation was made during a vote for the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development where Mwanza Central MP Nicholas Dausi noted that almost K465 million (about $1.1m) has also been allocated for farm inputs along the lines of Fisp.
Said Dausi: “Who are the beneficiaries of these huge and momentum allocations?”
Lilongwe Mpenu MP Watson Makala Ngozo also raised suspicions that probably the subsidy budget line for the Ministry of Local Government was meant to buy fertiliser for traditional leaders.
He said: “But we need the Minister [of Finance] to come in the open because we don’t have problems with our chiefs getting the free fertiliser.”
However, Minister of Finance Ken Lipenga disputed claims that every vote has a subsidy component and explained that in some instances, the agricultural input components are under a specific project funded by donors.
During Monday’s sitting, which had an early adjournment, Parliament passed 13 votes and deferred one.
In recent weeks, Fisp has come under attack from various quarters, including civil society organisations working in public health, HIV and Aids management sector—who two weeks ago asked Parliament to cut allocations to Fisp and redirect the money to top up the health budget.
The Economics Association of Malawi (Ecama) has also criticised the implementation of Fisp, arguing it is a waste of resources as the poor farmers benefit little.
Former president Bingu wa Mutharika introduced Fisp in 2005 and since then the country has been registering surplus maize harvests, moving from a perennial food insecure nation to, at one point, a maize exporter to neighbouring countries.
However, critics have faulted the programme for lack of an exit strategy. The programme takes up almost half of the total allocation to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.
