Government through the  Ministry of Agriculture has emphasized that the selling of this year’s Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) farm inputs will be launched on Friday, with the fertilizer price  maintained at K15 000.

This have been disclosed by Agriculture Minister  Sam Kawale during the  press briefing held yesterday in a Smallholder Farmers Fertilizer Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRFM) warehouse in Lilongwe.

He said they have started distributing 16 300 metric tonnes (MT) of fertiliser ahead of the launch in Traditional Authority Kaluluma in Lilongwe to be presided by President Lazarus Chakwera.

The minister disclosed that the total fertilizer required for the programme is 149 025MT of which 122 000MT is being procured through current budget.

Said Kawale: “The 16 300MT is from carry-over stocks which we are distributing right now, 6 000MT to be procured through support from International Fund for Agriculture Development under Crisis Recovery Initiative and 5 200MT being procured from a Japanese grant.”

He said the carry-over stock’s distribution started last week in districts including Nkhotakota, Chitipa, Mangochi, Mzimba, Kasungu and Rumphi.

The Ministry of Agriculture has, however, assured that they have devised new interventions that will prevent a recurrence of the hiccups experienced in previous years.

Source:NPL