Leader of Opposition in Parliament says the Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) has collapsed as there is shortage of fertilizer in many selling points across the country.
Nankhumwa has said this in a statement yesterday on the AIP situation in Malawi
According to the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, he visited the Smallholder Farmers Fertilizer Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRFM) warehouses in Blantyre on Friday, December 30, 2022 and established that the fund only has a meagre 50,500 metric tonnes of fertilizer, which is a very small amount compared to the demand on the ground.
“I can also confirm that this is the reason why there is no fertilizer in many SFFRFM distribution centres across the country. This is the reason why farmers are sleeping at distribution depots for days and weeks without buying fertilizer. There is simply no fertilizer to buy. As if that is not enough, only NPK fertilizer is available and not the other important fertilizers such as UREA,” he said.
Nankhumwa added that while he has been told that more fertilizer is at Beira Port in Mozambique en-route to Malawi, he doubts if the fertilizer can be transported into the country and supplied to selling points across all districts within this farming season.
“The problem has been exacerbated because SFFRFM is the sole supplier of the AIP fertilizers this season, and it only has less than 100 depots across the country,” said Nankhumwa.
He also faulted government for failing to resume ADMARC operations on December 1st as promised since the depots would have been used to sell AIP fertilizer and maize for food across Malawi considering that ADMARC has over 1,000 depots across the country.
Nankhumwa also accused the Lazarus Chakwera administration of being behind the collapse of AIP saying Parliament allocated over K180 billion for the AIP but some of the money was stolen, and instead, the country is waiting for donated fertilizer from Russia and Morocco, which he said will only arrive in the country next month, February.
Nankhumwa then demanded Chakwera to show servant leadership now because as it is, it can only be concluded that the Alliance government, under President Chakwera, has failed Malawians.
Yesterday, Chakwera addressed Malawians and he mentioned the AIP as one of the programs his government is using to shield Malawians from harsh economic conditions. However, the president did not talk about the challenges that are disrupting the program and how his government is addressing them.
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