President Lazarus Chakwera’s crop inspection tour in parts of the Southern and Eastern regions has exposed flaws in the implementation of the crisis-riddled 2021/22 Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP).

At the start of the tour in Thyolo District on Monday, Traditional Authority (T/A) Nanseta and Thyolo East legislator Masauko White (Democratic Progressive Party-DPP) said most farmers did not benefit from AIP and that the situation was further compounded by scarcity of Urea fertiliser.

In Zomba yesterday, Senior Chief Mlumbe and Zomba Changalume member of Parliament Bizwick Million (UTM Party) raised similar concerns when the President held a rally at Namadidi after inspecting crops.

Mlumbe said most farmers in his area did not access fertilisers  dueto their unavailability.

The chief said: “The coupons also came in late and had it been that the subsidy programme was well implemented, we could have been assured of a bumper harvest.”

Taking his turn, Million also shared the same sentiments and stressed that most Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) depots did not have AIP fertilisers in stock.

The MP expressed fear that his constituency will be hit hard by hunger due to the AIP mess.

On Monday, T/A Nanseta also expressed worry that the President was not being shown actual gardens affected by lack of fertiliser or damage caused by Tropical Storm Ana.

The concerns of AIP mess and its impact on crop output come at a time Ministry of Agriculture’s first round of crop production estimates show a 14 percent reduction.

On the other hand, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fewsnet) Food Security Outlook report for February to September 2022 also projected that crop production in the country will be between 10 and 25 percent below average.

During the rally, Minister of Agriculture Lobin Lowe acknowledged the AIP implementation challenges and assured that the forthcoming 2022/23 AIP would be smooth to benefit farmers.

In his address, the President acknowledged AIP hurdles farmers faced this year and ensured proper planning in the 2022/23 AIP implementation.

Chakwera also conceded that due to the challenges and tropical storms, crop output will go down.

He said: “I was touched that those that had access to fertiliser under the AIP are few. Of course, they were the intended beneficiaries, but still only a few benefitted.”

In separate interviews yesterday, agriculture experts said decisions on the implementation of the 2021/22 subsidy programme were made late and left little room to address challenges that emerged.

Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources agriculture economist Horace Phiri said moving forward, it would be imperative for preparations to be done in good time.

“All logistics, agreements with fertiliser suppliers, the number of beneficiaries and redeem price should be decided months before the onset of the season. Otherwise, I will still go for the current setup that promotes private sector participation,” he said.

Agriculture policy expert Tamani Nkhono-Mvula said to address the AIP mess, there is need for an honest analysis but also look at issues to do with political interests.

He said: “The bottom line to all the challenges AIP has been facing is the whole issue of planning.

“Not necessarily that we don’t have good planners in the ministry, but when planning processes are being hampered by political interests, this brings confusion to all things that have been put in place.”

In the K2.84 trillion 2022/23 National Budget, the AIP has been allocated K109.5 billion, down from K142 billion in the 2021/22 financial year.

AIP is the Tonse Alliance initiative which succeeded the Farm Inputs Subsidy Programme (Fisp) implemented by DPP. The AIP quadrupled the number of beneficiaries from Fisp’s estimated 900 000 beneficiaries to about 3.7 million. The cost also increased from about K40 billion to K140 billion.

Critics of the subsidy programme, including the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the Economics Association of Malawi, argue that it is draining government resources as it is purely consumptive in nature.

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