Ministry of Agriculture has removed at least 20 000 civil servants from the list of this year’s Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) beneficiaries, Nation on Sunday has established.

Minister of Agriculture Sam Kawale confirmed the development on Sunday, adding that his ministry is working towards identifying needy farmers to replace them.

Small-scale farmers waiting to buy subsidised farm inputs

While agriculture experts have welcomed the move, they argued that this shows lack of accountability and transparency in identifying AIP beneficiaries.

Although the civil servants have been removed, the targeted beneficiaries still remains 2.5 million.

Said Kawale: “We have removed civil servants in every district. So far, 20 000 civil servants have been removed from the AIP beneficiaries list.

“Right now the Ministry of Agriculture is working towards replacing them with new beneficiaries.”

AIP guidelines state that eligible beneficiaries are underprivileged smallholder farmers who cannot access farm inputs, but have potential if supported.

Kawale said it is against AIP guidelines for people with capacity to benefit at the expense of millions of needy farmers.

“AIP is meant to benefit those who are vulnerable and not those who are able. It is sad that some civil servants with the ability to buy fertiliser steal from the vulnerable, the aged and people with disabilities,” he said.

A memo from the ministry, dated November 24 2022, addressed to programme managers in agricultural development divisions (ADDs) indicated that apart from civil servants, people with dubious particulars should also be removed.

“In addition, the ministry has also not considered those beneficiaries whose particulars do not match with those in the National Registration Bureau database,” reads part of the memo signed by Geoffrey Mamba on behalf of the Secretary of Agriculture.

Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources economist Horace Phiri said this shows that the beneficiary identification process is marred by serious errors.

He said: “20 000 is a big number. It shows that the process had errors which need to be addressed.

“We need clear and transparent criteria for selecting AIP beneficiaries to ensure accountability. Otherwise, this decision is welcome. Let’s leave AIP to deserving households.”

Phiri called on the ministry to swiftly address the error as it may affect AIP implementation.

Agriculture policy expert Tamani Nkhono-Mvula also expressed shock that over 20 000 undeserving beneficiaries penetrated AIP.

He said: “If you look at AIP objectives, it is to support smallholder farmers that are resource-constrained, but are able to produce if supported by a government programme.

“The assumption is that civil servants have the ability to procure farm inputs. So, for those in the civil service to be in the programme, it is very unfortunate.”

Nkhono-Mvula called on government to find ways of punishing people benefiting from pro-poor programmes.

By doing so, he said it would send a strong warning to those that take advantage of such programmes.

The ministry has cut the number of AIP beneficiaries from 3.7 million last season to 2.5 million this year.

Government is expected to spend K109.4 billion on AIP.

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