As Agriculture Input Programme (AIP) is racing against time Office of the President and Cabinet has directed that all Government open tracks should with immediate effect, start fertilizer delivery.
In a brief statement which Dickson Chunga on behalf of Secretary to the President Chunga says AIP is facing logistical challenges.
“As you are aware, the Government of the Republic of Malawi, through the Smallholder Farmers Fertilizer Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRFM) is in the process of distributing fertilizer under the Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) to target famers across the country. However the exercise has faced logistical challenges in terms of availability of adequate Lorries to fery the fertilizer from SFFRFM Warehouses to the various selling points in this regard.
Govenment would like to request Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to support the exercise by providing Lorries and Twin Cabs/Station Wagons to SFFRFM” Reads the statement in part.
Chunga has asked the controlling officers to treat the matter with urgency.
Minister of Agriculture, Samuel Dalitso Kawale, recently said his Ministry is monitoring reports making rounds about challenges affecting this year’s AIP program.
Kawale said strong measures and interventions have been put in place to end all challenges.
“The Ministry of Agriculture has done the following the past week to expedite AIP delivery ; 174 extra mobile phones procured, programmed and dispatched across the country to beef up the current Stock on top of that , 300 trucks, and more coming, have been added to assist in ferrying fertilizer across the country and on top of that , 256 extra clerks recruited, trained and dispatched across the country, to beef up current staff,” he said.
According to Kawale , each constituency has four or five mobile vending sites to expedite distribution of fertilizer and seed.
“Twelve companies are distributing seed to farmers across the country and on top of that network has been working well the past three weeks except last weekend” said Kawale.