JB confident of winning Malawi elections: To continue fertilizer subsidy programme
President Joyce Banda on Tuesday expressed confidence that her ruling People’s Party (PP) will win next month’s elections.
She was speaking at a rally in central region’s Mchinji District after switching on rural electricity at Nkhwazi Health centre.
Thousands gathered at the rally at Nkhwazi Admarc football ground in the district bordering Zambia.
She told her supporters that her party would win the elections “resoundingly” declaring emphatically that “it is possible.”
And when she get her own mandate, President Banda said her Government will continue with the fertilizer subsidy programme and also strengthen farming clubs as one way of improving agriculture in the country once voted into power.
She said agriculture is the economic backbone of the country and promoting it is good for the people.
“I know that the country rely on agriculture and most of the farmers are poor, I would like to assure you that my government won’t stop the fertilizer subsidy programme, we will continue with it so that we help a lot of people,” she said.
Opposition UDF, MCP and DPP have highlighted in their election manifesto that if elected to power they would abolish fertiliser subsidy program and promote universal fertiliser subsidy that would help boost Malawi’s agricultural production.
But Banda argued that fertilizer subsidy programme is as well as killing the plight of the poor farmers who can’t afford to buy expensive fertilizer.
She also said it is high time new farming technologies ventures in the agriculture sector in the country as there is need to improve from using a local hoe to some machinery which can make farming faster.
“It’s not that I only would like continue with subsidy, but also I want the farmers to have their jobs simplified. I would like us to stop using hoes and use some machinery which will make farming faster and easier, than the usual hoes.
“As such I have already identified a company in India which will provide us with the equipment as an alternate of hoes, it’s high time we use different agriculture technologies,” she said.
The President noted that in some parts of the district and country as a whole, there are patches of hunger looming as the rains did not come well therefore called on the people to practice winter farming and also intensify on irrigation farming.
“With the way the climate is changing, I think it’s not good just to rely on planting during rainy season only, we should also practice and intensify winter clopping, by doing so we will have enough surplus food,” she said.
The President told the people that what she was saying is in her party’s manifesto as she regards agriculture as the best thing to provide to the people of this country.
The State President made the remarks after inaugurating houses under Mudzi Transformation Trust, distributing cows and officially switching on electricity at Nkhwazi Health Centre in the district.
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