Government through the ministry of agriculture has announced that it will next week launch the Affordable Input Programme (AIP).
This is according to the minister of Agriculture Lobin Lowe who announced the development in Parliament on Tuesday.
Lowe said his ministry has been busy making sure that everything about the programme should be in order by now and said the entire system has since been tested and proven to be good.
The minister further said his ministry has developed good technology for the programme to fight fraud compared to the previous programme where more fraud cases were reported.
He has further announced that all hard to reach areas will be prioritised in this year’s provision of the affordable farm inputs.
“My ministry has developed good technology which has a good system with a back up to avoid all fraud cases. We have information regarding all hard to reach areas and areas which receive early rains.
“Government has since suggested that all those areas need to be the first in accessing these affordable farm inputs,” said Lowe.
It is reported that for the first time the programme which is targeting over four million Malawians will only be accessed by Malawians who have a national identity card and there will be no use of coupons this time.
Meanwhile, government says it has currently in stock over 150,000 metric tonnes of fertilizer where farmers will be buying a 50 kg of fertilizer at K4,995 as Tonse Alliance’s promise during the campaign period.
