The government will this year trim the number of Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) beneficiaries by 400,000, the Ministry of Agriculture has disclosed.
This means 1.1 million people will get inputs, down from 1.5 million last agricultural season.
Line minister Sam Kawale disclosed this in Lilongwe during a Civil Society Organisations (CSO) Dialogue on AIP and Mega Farms Initiatives meeting.
International charity Oxfam and Civil Society Agriculture Network organised the activity.
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According to Kawale, authorities seek to migrate some beneficiaries to other programmes such as Social Cash Transfer and Public Works programme.
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“We are going through a process of properly identifying productive farmers in Malawi by establishing a programme called National Agriculture Management Information System (Namis), which is going to register every farmer in Malawi.
“Once we know who the productive farmers are, [and] those who are not productive—[either] because they are elderly or [they are people] with disabilities that hinder them from being productive—we are taking them towards the Social Cash Transfer [Programme].
“Those who have the ability to work but have no land will go to the Public Works Programme. So, those are social protection programmes. But then, for those who have land and can be productive, then we are maintaining them under AIP but we are graduating them to commercial farming,” Kawale said .
He added that the future of agriculture in Malawi was not subsistence farming but commercial farming.
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“Now for people to migrate from subsistence to commercial farming, they need access to finance. That’s why the Malawi Government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, has put in close to K600 billion in agriculture commercialisation.
“And [as for] Neef [National Economic Empowerment Fund], the farm inputs loan programme is under the K350 billion that was announced last week. Not only that, but we are taking the subsistence farmers to commercial farming by putting them through other programmes with Agra, Pride, the Mega Farms Support Unit but also Admarc [Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation] and National Food Reserve Agency,” Kawale said.
He emphasised the need for farmers that will get fertiliser under AIP to use more manure alongside the fertiliser, saying the country’s soil is being degraded through the use of chemical fertilisers.
“Any country in the world can never be food secure if the soil is poor. Now in Malawi our soil is terrible. There is no way we can sugarcoat that fact. Our soil is poor. We have pumped in a lot of money in fertiliser commercially and subsidies but the production has still been two tonnes a hectare or three tonnes a hectare simply because our soil does not have the organic matter needed to help crops to grow.
“At the same time, the pH levels are crazy. We need to control the pH levels. So first of all, before a farmer has access to fertiliser, commercially or through subsidy, they need to make sure that they control the pH level of the soil by putting lime. Secondly they are supposed to put lots of manure or organic fertiliser in the soil. Then they can plant and put chemical fertiliser,” Kawale said.
On her part, Oxfam Country Director Lingalireni Mihowa said they organised the interface to have a deeper understanding of reforms being implemented under AIP.
According to Mihowa, they are impressed to note that the government is reducing the number of beneficiaries under AIP.
Mihowa said Kawale was honest when he said that the dollar value going towards AIP has been reduced.
“That is very welcome because it is going to support government’s ability to support other areas within the agriculture sector; [areas] such as extension services and issues to do with markets that came out as a big aspect of making sure that we are not only producing but also making sure that farmers have access to markets.
“So, the reduction in the budget and the reduction in the number of people has been welcomed,” Mihowa said.
