This year’s Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) beneficiaries in Malawi will not pay in advance for the inputs, amid reports that many farmers did not receive theirs during the last agricultural season despite paying for them.
This was clear theft by the government from poor farmers in Malawi, who were asked to pay in advance for fertilizer that was never delivered. I know of a Mr. Mdala of Kawale, who is 70 years old. He only received seed during the distribution exercise at Masintha Ground, but he was not given fertilizer. I felt very sad listening to how this old man was cheated by his own government.
It is reported that in the new farming season, the Ministry of Agriculture in Malawi will revert to the pay-and-collect method, following a recommendation by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) which monitored the 2022/2023 programme.
I believe that the ACB has been too lenient with the leadership of the Ministry of Agriculture in Malawi. It is not enough to simply hear a recommendation by the ACB and then revert to the pay-and-collect method without arresting the culprits.
Under the advance payment system, beneficiaries in Malawi were asked to collect the inputs after a day or two, but the majority of poor farmers walked away empty-handed.
According to the ministry, they introduced the advance payment component last year under the mobile vending system to reduce the distance that beneficiaries had to travel to access the inputs and eliminate the waiting period.
However, instead of achieving its goals, the AIP in Malawi flopped, denying many poor farmers access to fertilizer. Those who did manage to get AIP fertilizer were too late to apply it to their maize fields, as the crop had already tasseled.
The government of Malawi must get its act together this growing season and avoid repeating the same mistake.
