Opposition leader Nankhumwa goes to town on chaotic cheap fertilizer programme
Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Kondwani Nankhumwa has dared President Lazarus Chakwera to fix the challenges farmers are currently facing in accessing and buying cheap fertilizer and seeds under the Affordable Input Programme (AIP).
In a public statement issued on Friday the 27th of November, 2020, Nankhumwa , who is also Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) vice-president (South) has described the AIP as a disaster.
“I would like to call upon the Tonse Alliance government to come up with workable solutions to this criss within an urgent timeframe,” said Nankhumwa in astatement made available to Nyasa Times.
He continued: “A few weeks ago, the Minister of Agriculture and other government officials assured Malawians that the AIP challenges would be resolved within two weeks. The two-week period has elapsed and the solution does not seem to be anywhere near being resolved.
“In fact, the situation seems to be deteriorating further. If need be, the electronic system must be abandoned and let a manual verification system be used instead,” said Nankhumwa who is also DPP Vice President for the southern region.”
Nankhumwa also says that government had planned for 370,000 metric tonnes of fertilizer but so far, only 37,000 metric tonnes have been distributed across the country.
“To say that AIP is a complete disaster and that we are nation that faces hunger next year would be an understatement. The current fertilizer situation is extremely disturbing and especially occurring against the backdrop of Tonse Alliance’s three-meals-a- day pledge that made to the people of Malawi,” said Nankhumwa who once served as Minister of Agriculture in DPP led government.
Reports indicate that the programme is facing numerous challenges from ICT hiccups to selling underweight bags of farm inputs. Other dealers are said to be selling low quality seeds and overpricing of the inputs amongst others.
Government engaged 83 private companies to supply the AIP across the country but only 46 companies have actually distributed or are still distributing their inputs while the others have dropped out of circulation, according to the Leader of the Opposition.
Nankhumwa has also asked the Faith community, including the Public Affairs Committee, the Evangelical Association of Malawi, Episcopal Conference of Malawi, the Muslim Association of Malawi, the General Synod of the CCAP, and other faith communities in the country to hold interdenominational prayers to pray for our country to have good rains and not destructive rains.
Tonse Government you are not listening, IF you continue like that you will have a MIGHTY fall. Please, effect a thorough system OVERHAUL. Do not keep DPP top cadets 8n key positions, they will give you a hot clap ,mbama in chicheea. It is not about firing them, move them around. These guys can not be trusted. Suffer not the witches and wizards to live. They are outright Evil. On a successful farm they are NO sacred cows. Wishing the novice government a very viable transition.
Sanapeze pomugoneka pabwino anthu onsedi awayesa osauka, ALENDO nonse CHOKANI!!!!
As far as i’m concerned, the people who were chosen by whatever methods by elders and apparently further scrutinised and chosen by authorities or computer systems at capital hill, where i come from the majority have collected the cheap fertlizer and seed! Initially, due to the euphoria and fear of missing out, it seems everybody wanted the get the inputs on the first day which was impossible, and created un necessary chaos and i understand the network (as usual) was an issue! And they were long queus indeed. But it’s good tp note that lines are reducing! But u can’t blame such on Govt. As long as the inputs are made available, the UTM idea of cheap fertlizer has come into reality! This far the majority of the selected citizens have collected! Now, some real problems in the process which need to be improved upon are by authorities and village haeds are;
1. The need to commence the excercise very early to give the process and citizens ample time to acquire the cheap inputs way before the rains commence since the majority of the citizens rely on the rains!
2. The system needs to be sanitized with active citizens as evidenced by the selection of deceased names to participate in the process. The village heads should provide names of active citizens only, this comes down to how honest these chiefs are!
3. We have some of the best IT experts in the country and they can get over this hurdle. The PPPC project of providing Malawians with a free wifi and connectivity can help here right? But ultimately, it boils down to individual wholesalers/retailers and connectivity to the network. We heard that Govt is constructing towers throughout the Nation to get over such challenges, Mr Kadzako should brief us on this, hes been making noise on these issues.
4. The athorities or including DCs and selected committees of each district should identify appropriate outlets closer to the people in the rural areas to ensure that they dont spend much on transport to and fro to acquire inputs. The locals should be involved in such decisions, even if the network isn’t available, manual records and controls can be utilised and later on entered into the system. These committees will ensure that theres transparency in the distribution of such inputs.
5. Finally, the process should be managed by a separate independent entity separate from the Ministry of Agriculture. Or the process can be outsourced, appropriate consultants through appropriate tender and selection process should be conducted. This entity should be closely monitored to ensure appropriate governance and controls!
These are some of the issues which should be considered to improve the process. And the ovverriding objective here is to graduate the vulnerable masses to graduate hence the need to ensure the programme is for a stated time period up to when it’s gonna be phased out!
I’m hoping this is what the honourable leader of opposition will be looking into this. He should really use his influential position to ensure hes providing the necessary checks and balances to Govt benches. Assuming the wrangles of whos tbe leader of opposition are resolved.
Fat boy tsopano.
Mind you Malawians, Professor Ronald Mangani watilesa kupemphelera mvula popeza madzi tili nawo ambiri ndiye njala njofuna 🍚🇲🇼
We knew from the word go that the AIP would face problems, literally all of which are man made by DPP saboteurs planted in every ministry to derail any positive move by the Tonse Alliance government.
Stop blaming DPP. Chakwera not Munthalika is in the driving seat. Wake up brother
Bwana Mtete, you wanted DPP out and it happened according to your wish. Where now does DPP appear in your flops? Shame on you! That kind of backward thinking doesn’t have any place in transformational leadership that you have always claimed to adopt. I ve never seen any individual or organisation that rushes to blame others for their own problems succeeding in finding the solutions . The practicality of AIP was doubtful even fro the beginning.
Nkhaniyi ndiyowona anthu akugona pa mzere wokagula fertilizer, lets not politisize the story
Caretaker uyu…Ayini ake akubwela.
Nankhumwa has to make himself relevant by making some noises here and there. The truth is he is no longer recognized by the DPP executive and governing council
On this one Nankhumwa is right. This is a do or break deal Chakwera needs all the hands on the decor. It is early of course to suggest that they have failed cos its only six months BUT a good start in politics is always a plus so they must just try to resolve these glitches & make sure that people get fertilizers before it is too late as the rains have already started falling.
Damn you. Why accuse HE.
Tachokani inu a mbuli a 39 points with mathematics 9 points. Your career is finished and it is just a matter of time before DPP cuts you balls. You expect a smooth ride to AIP for the new government? APM analakwa kukukweza mu mtengo where you don’t belong. You were supposed to be a vendor at Mulanje market.
Politics aside we all need to work together on this one. By the looks of things we might have hunger. When it comes it won’t see tribe or political party. What is right is for government to be truthful about the situation. Maybe the department of disaster management need to even start planning.
The ICT mess was deliberately creae so that they should create a position for one of he MCP loofer and thug Bedulo who has so far been recruited into government as director where a position has been created for him by Chihosi. As I am speaking Chikhosi has been saying that he will dismiss all people at e government and replace them with MCP thugs. HRDC has been talking of proper recruitment of civil servants yet Bendulo was just given a contract without attending any interviews.
Bye Fat Boy!
Fired by DPP saved by the courts. It’s just a matter of time before he is booted out of that post.
He will stay till the end office tenure
Hate Nankhumwa for political reasons but what he is saying is what is happening in many parts of the country. Its difficult for those blinded by government promises to see the wrongs that others see in the AIP. Didn’t Dr Chakwera admit that even in his home, Malembo in Kasiya there is the same problem facing other areas of the country? So who are you to say things are perfectly well?
The failure of Tonse Alliance was noticed from the beginning of their reign. It took ages to name a Cabinet and yet when they were running a campaign for Presidency, they knew all along they will need a Cabinet. Can you see what Joe Biden has done. He has already put in place his Cabinet before sitting on oval chair at the White House. Kusiyana kwa anthu a phuma ndi ochita zinthu mwa dongosolo ndi kumeneko.As if it was not enough, the selection of board members took another century. Kukanika ntchito.If it were Kamuzu, Lowe would have been fired already, but being a homeboy nothing of this sort can happen to him. Failures are the ones to survive the whip in Tonse Alliance. I think Danwood Chirwa was right to brand Chakwera a failure at the onset.
Biden has a three month transition period. He is funded to do his work by the government. So you can not compare the two as apples to apples.
Nakhumwa kuzolowera kuba ma coupon ali nduna ku Agriculture kumapatsa anyamata ake ndi Chibwenzi chake cha ku Admarc , even coupons was also very chaotic,
ndingokukumbutsa mwa ulele khadeti, program yanu yama coupon mumapanga target a mere 900,000 ndipo mumafika mpaka month-end ya January musanamalize that 900,000. Lero the new program yapanga target 3.6milion ndipo pofika dzulo 28% yagula representing 1,008,000 thats surpassing the 900,000 yemwe inu mumakwanilisa January end yet the 1,008,000 yakwanilisidwa December tisanamuyambe nkomwe, bwanji pamenepo…..
How long did it take your Bingustaduum Webster Daniel to appoint his first cabinet?
Please tiyeni tisiye kulota.