The Civil Society Agriculture Network (CISANET) has urged Malawi government to speed up implementation of the Farm Input Subsidy Program (FISP) for the 2017/18 farming season.
According to CISANET, the delay to start implementing the program as the farming season approaches will affect the effectiveness of the program.
CISANET National Director Pamela Kuwali disclosed a need to have farming inputs readily available to farmers.
“What we can ask from government is distribution of fertilizer on time and quick identification of companies to carry out the task,” said Kuwali.
During the 2016/17 agriculture season, farmers lamented shortage of fertilizer in approved selling points across the country.
The development witnessed farmers failing to buy fertilizer even though they received coupons hence not having fertilizer to use in their maize fields.
Meanwhile government has disclosed that companies are ready for the task of distributing the farm inputs.
Malawi government launched FISP as a way of ensuring food security through subsiding farming costs to less privileged farmers in the country.
I think the topic is kinder sense
government should also consider adding pesticides in FISP this year to kill the armyworms affecting maize otherwise Malawians will not harvest anything next year