As if rewriting last year’s  script highlighting Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) challenges, network glitches are forcing beneficiaries of this year’s programme to spend hours on end at depots, Nation on Sunday has established.

Last week, Andrew Chakaka from Neno District waited eight hours at a Smallholder Farmers Fertiliser Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRFM) depot to redeem inputs.

The visibly frustrated Chakaka said he arrived at the depot at the boma around 6am, hoping to redeem his inputs in good time once the process starts.

“The depot opened around 8 o’clock, but unfortunately we were told that there were network issues. So, we had to wait all morning for the network glitches to be resolved,” he said.

Leaning on his motorcycle which he uses for business, Chakaka said redeeming inputs began around 2pm and was frustratingly slow.

Beneficiaries queue at Mwanza SFFRFM depot

He said the network glitches delayed him to do his motorcycle taxi business commonly known as kabaza.

 “I honestly feel frustrated. Spending the entire day here means I have not made money to feed my family,” he said.

In the week, Nation on Sunday also observed the same situation at Mwanza SFFRFM depot where farmers  began redeeming inputs two hours later due to network glitches.

A farmer Beatrice Maida told Nation on Sunday that she arrived at the depot around 7am hoping to redeem her inputs in good time.

By the time she arrived, several other beneficiaries were already waiting for the depot to open.

“When the depot was opened and farmers started redeeming their inputs, we were told that network was bad. And, we had to wait for some hours,” she said.

Maida, who redeemed her inputs in the afternoon, complained spending hours at the depot.

To her, it meant going back home late and starting from scratch chores which could have been done earlier had she not spent almost six hours waiting to redeem the inputs.

Similar trends were also observed in districts of Rumphi, Karonga, Chiradzulu, Dowa, Mulanje, Phalombe, Salima, Zomba, Nsanje and Nkhotakota where the programme had rolled as of Tuesday this week.

Enelles Tembo from Nsanje told us in an interview last week that the network glitches were compounded by not opening the depot in the district.

Christopher Mzumara from Luwuchi in Rumphi had no kind words either.

“The network glitches are a great inconvenience to us because we have had to leave our businesses,” he said.

Emmanuel Lombozi from Bokosi Village in Phalombe and Estelle Wasili from Dowa echoed the same sentiments.

They expressed displeasure at the delays they encountered while waiting for the network glitches to be resolved.

Said Wasili: “My husband even thought I was at a friend’s place because he could not believe that I could be at the depot for more than six hours.”

Apart from the network glitches, other challenges include late delivery of inputs to respective depots, late registration of beneficiaries, missing of beneficiaries’ names and late beginning of the programme in other districts.

Agricultural policy expert Tamani Nkhono Mvula in an interview described the challenges as disappointing.

 “There is no year when these challenges were never encountered,” he said.

Minister of Agriculture Sam Kawale last week said the network challenges were temporary and that they were working hard to resolve them.

He said some areas were as of last week yet to receive inputs as they focused on hard-to-reach areas first. The minister said fertiliser is also being dispatched daily with new distribution points being opened.

He said: “Admarc depots will also be used to sell fertiliser and we are finalising discussions with Farmers World and Paramount to use about 200 extra selling points.

“All these are not including mobile markets which will be determined on a need basis in each constituency.”

Kawale said a minimum of 800 trucks will be used this year while 800 sales clerks were inducted and deployed at selling points and that a further 120 clerks have been called and were expected to be deployed by last week.

According to Kawale, SFFRFM and ministry officials were meeting every Monday to review AIP progress in a bid to meet the 40-day ultimatum that President Lazarus Chakwera gave him to complete its implementation.

There are 378 SFFRFM markets for the AIP. By breakdown, the Southern Region has 167, Central Region 136 and Northern Region 75.

Government allocated K109.8 billion for the 2023/24 AIP, of which K102 billion is for fertiliser purchases, K585 million for purchase of goats, K6.5 billion for seeds and K67 million for operation expenses.

AIP, which is benefitting 1.5 million farming households in the current farming season, succeeded the Farm Input Subsidy Programme implemented under the erstwhile governing Democratic Progressive Party, which used to target 900 000 farming households.

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