Ministry of Agriculture says it will finalise selling of inputs under the Affordable Input Programme (AIP) by January 31, 2023.
Minister responsible Sam Kawale made the remarks at Ekwendeni in Mzimba on Friday after inspecting selling point in the area.
Kawale said government has managed to mobilise all the required fertiliser to cater for the 2.5 million beneficiaries of the programme.
“The programme has picked up, it is even faster than before. Firstly we had challenges with network, which has been rectified; you can imagine that even with just 30 seconds scanning is complete.
“We are also selling fertiliser through mobile vehicles to reduce distance and also congestion in existing depots. That aside we have increased the number of vehicles to reach all the areas,” he said.
He added that in every constituency, they have added at least four selling points.
“We have fertiliser which came though WFP [World food Programme]. We have fertiliser from Morocco which we are blending.
“So people think we do not have fertiliser in the country but we have a lot. You can crosscheck with our SFFRFM warehouses and private warehouses,” he said.
In the 2022-23 budget, government allocated K109 billion for AIP out of which K97.5 billion was for fertliser purchase.
