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Minister of Agriculture Uladi Mussa has said the shortage of subsidised fertiliser on the market was partly because some people were having fake coupons. He said government has instituted an investigation to establish the source of the coupons.
Mussa in an interview on Thursday also said government was ready to buy some more fertiliser from the local suppliers for the subsidised programme if it establishes how much extra fertiliser was needed through a head count of the coupons still in people’s hands.
“The information that we have is that some of the coupons which people are still having are not authentic, they are fake. We are just hearing this but I have so far told our officials to investigate the matter and establish the truth and where the coupons are coming from,” he said.
Government has been refusing to admit that there was a shortage of the subsidised fertiliser and that some people were still having unused coupons.
But Mussa on Thursday admitted that he has been receiving reports that some people were still having the coupons but had nowhere to source the subsidised fertiliser.
“Yes we are told that there are people who are still having the (genuine) coupons and we want to establish how many people still have the coupons so that we can source the fertiliser locally,” he said.
The minister said the ministry has so far embarked on an assessment process of the situation.
“We have told all the district commissioners to find out how many people in each district do have the (genuine) coupons, once we get that we will buy the additional requirement from the local suppliers,” said Mussa.
But he said government has no money at the moment and it would try to source some funding from other sources or negotiate with the local fertiliser suppliers to pay them soon after the next budget.
“Government cannot do otherwise because we are talking about food security here and we know it’s not a lot of fertiliser needed because in some districts there might be only less than 200 people still having the coupons,” he added.
Mussa parried suggestions that the fertiliser did not meet the requirement because the initial required quantities were reduced.
Two weeks ago Mussa said in an interview despite that some smallholder farmers are still holding the coupons government would not buy any more because that would be outside the budget.
Minister of Finance Goodall Gondwe disclosed in the press recently that a combined tonnage of 110,000 for 23:21:0 and Urea fertiliser had run out.
Chief Executive of National Association of Smallholder Farmers Dybon Chibonga said his organisation has fertiliser which is ready to sell it to government.
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