Hard to reach areas will be prioritised in the provision of fertiliser under the Affordable Input Programme (AIP), Agriculture Minister Robin Lowe told parliament on Tuesday.

“My ministry has information regarding all hard to reach areas and areas which receive early rains. Government will prioritise those areas,” Lowe told anxious lawmakers during question time.

For the first time, Malawians will access AIP using national identity cards, commonly known as ‘Nzika.’

Lowe said the system was airtight to fraud, adding that:” My ministry has developed a good technology which has a good system with a back up.”

He said the system had been tested “and it has proved to be good.”

The Minister said the only challenge were isolated areas with network glitches.

Malawi has currently over 150,000 metric tonnes of fertiliser in stock.

AIP, with farmers buying a 50 kg of fertliser at nearly K5,000, will be launched next week targetting over four million Malawians.

Affordable fertiliser was one of the major promises of the Tonse Alliance during the campaign in 2019 and fresh presidential election won by President Dr Lazarus Chakwera with Dr Saulos Chilima as the Vice President.