Government Marks 2022 AIP A Sign Of Victory
Government will give out goats to 30 000 farming households in a pass on programs through this year’s Affordable Inputs Program (AIP) which is expected to benefit 2.5 million farming families.
Speaking at Maonde Primary School Ground in Chief Kachere’s area in Dedza District during an official launch of this year’s AIP President Lazarus Chakwera says the Program is a mark of victory, owing to the various bottlenecks government faced.
The visibly angry Malawi leader cited “attempts to dupe government by foreign companies, incompetent leadership in officers entrusted to run the program, cartels by middlemen in the fertilizer supply chain, and the Russia-Ukraine war.”
The program gives the beneficiaries a sigh of relief as they are designed to purchase a 50 kilogram (kg) bag of fertilizer at K15,000 as well as a 5 kg bag packet of seed at K5,000.
Meanwhile, the president has since said the responsibility now lies in the hands of the beneficiaries, who are supposed to make a financial contribution of K15,000, and resist and report all fraudulent activities surrounding the program, among others.
As the president launches the program, it is estimated that so far, 99 percent of the targeted beneficiaries have already been registered and will access the commodity through the ADMARC as well as Smallholder Farmers Fertilizer Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRFM).
A group of development partners and donors comprising the African Development Bank (ADB) and World Food Programme (WFP) have assisted Malawi with 20,000 metric tonnes while the Kingdom of Morocco has assisted with 10,000 metric tonnes of the fertilizer following President Chakwera’s discussions with these partners during his different tours that he had embarked outside the country.
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