Farmers with land and labour capacity can now breathe a sigh of relief following announcement by government that this year’s Affordable Input Programme (AIP) will be launched Friday this week by President Lazarus Chakwera at Kavidebwere Primary school in Kasungu.
Minister of Agriculture Sam Kawale announced this during a press briefing held at the Smallholders Farmers Fertilizer Revolving Fund (SFFRFM) warehouses at Kanengo in Lilongwe on Tuesday.
Kawale said out of the 1.5 million farming households to be supported by AIP, 1.49 million farming households with land of sizes ranging from 0.4 and 2.5 hectares will access fertilizers and seeds, while 9,750 households will access female goats at a subsidized price.
According to Kawale, each of the 1.49 million households will access a total of two bags of NPK and Urea fertilizers, weighing 50 kg each bag.
He said government has maintained last year’s K15,000 per bag subsidized price for NPK and Urea fertilizers, while giving option to productive farming households to choose a 5kg of hybrid or OPV seeds pack where government will pay K3,500 with beneficiary topping up the amount according to the price of the seed chosen.
Kawale further said some beneficiaries in Phalombe, Balaka and Salima will access two female goats each at a subsidized price of K15,000 per goat, emphasizing there are a lot of programmes besides the AIP where people will benefit.
“Let me inform the nation that in the 2023-24 season, the government will support about 435,000 farming households under Climate Smart Public Works with support from the World Bank and 291,000 farming households will be given cash under the Social Cash Transfer Program (SCTP),” Kawale explained.
He added that the commercial oriented farming households will be supported under AGCOM programmes.
Kawale said the government has put in place measures to ensure nobody benefits from more than one social protection programme, saying the beneficiaries list has been drawn from the Unified Beneficiary Registry (UBR).
He said development partners have also put together resources amounting to K486 billion to ensure more people benefit from different programmes and that the country achieves food security.
On internet and other challenges the programme faced last year, which made it difficult for beneficiaries to redeem farm inputs, the minister said such has been rectified, adding they have introduced a support system where beneficiaries could still redeem in the event of network challenges.
“We have also hired clerks who will help in the selling of inputs, open 378 selling points across the country and in addition use mobile markets to ensure people do not travel long distances to access the farm inputs,” he said.
The minister further said some of the fertilizers procured have already arrived in hard to reach areas in all the regions of the country while hired workers have also already been deployed.
Minister of Information Moses Kunkuyu, who was also present at the briefing, said the government was ready to implement the programme this year, observing that a high percentage of the inputs has already been procured.
Reacting to the announcement, Joseph Kalivunde, a farmer from Lilongwe, said it is good news that the government has worked towards rectifying the challenges the programme faced last year.
He, however, advised the government to ensure smooth implementation, observing that sometimes vendors access the commodity easily against the government’s wish.
Reported By Stanley Nkhondoyachepa
