|
When MCP president John Tembo refused recently to attend a special religious function to ask God for good rains some people called him names, but two months after the prayers Tembo’s reasoning sounds more sensible.
“How can we go to God to ask for rain when it is coming?” Tembo argued. According to Tembo, people needed to pray to God for fertiliser prices — which are still far beyond the reach of most smallholder farmers — to come down. On average a 50kg bag of fertiliser costs K3,000 in the country.
But the issue now is not only about the need for affordable fertiliser prices. It is also about its availability. The few farmers that have the capacity to buy the commodity have over the past few weeks been sent back every time they went to fertiliser shops to buy it. It is an undisputable fact that fertiliser has become so scarce in the country that some people fear for another food crisis.
Chairman of the parliamentary committee on agriculture Dzoole Mwale (MCP) is one of those people. He told the committee’s recent meeting to discuss the draft food and nutrition security policy that Malawi risks facing another food crisis, resulting from low yields, if the fertiliser shortage continues.
President Bingu wa Mutharika raised the hopes of many smallholder farmers when he announced that his government was going to reduce the price of fertiliser as one way of improving agricultural productivity in the country.
Instead, the prices of fertiliser have remained high and the free fertiliser and seed government has been distributing through TIP have not reached about 40 percent of the registered beneficiaries because of “logistical problems” in the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Food Security.
Even if the “handouts” got to the people now, it might be too late for the farmers to achieve expected results since rains have been coming well for almost a month now.
“We are going to have famine, a disaster,” MCP president told The Nation a few days ago. “Starter or TIP has collapsed.”
Officials attribute the fertiliser scarcity to transport hiccups on Mozambican transit routes, congestion at the port of Durban in South Africa and poor timing in placing orders to countries that supply Malawi with fertiliser. Others blame it on government saying the “political” announcement that fertiliser prices would come down created uncertainty to many importers, who were not sure of their profit margins.
Farmers World regional manager Carl Lopes said his company ran out of the commodity because their consignment got stuck at the port of Beira in Mozambique because of some problems on the Nacala Corridor.
President of the Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCCI) Martin Kansichi felt government should have waited to complete all paper work before announcing that fertiliser prices would nose-dive this season. According to him, the announcement will have negative effects on crop production this year, since smallholder farmers have been demoralised by government’s failure to live up to the campaign promise.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Food Security held discussions with fertiliser companies a few days ago to chart the way forward.
“At the moment we are not looking at what or who caused the problem. We are looking at the crisis and how we can move forward,” deputy agriculture minister Sidik Mia was quoted in the media as saying recently.
Although the country depends largely on agriculture, Malawi is one of the countries where food insecurity remains one of the major challenges. Lack of proper planning by the line ministry, low budgetary allocation by Treasury to the agriculture sector and lack of incentives for the farmers are some of the causes of the perennial food insecurity.
“Did we have to wait for the rains to start before planning for fertiliser?” asked a Lilongwe resident, who accused government of lack of seriousness.
Three years ago the government went ahead to sell surplus maize to Kenya and other countries despite expert warning that the country faced an imminent food crisis because of climatic change that would affect agricultural production the following year. Resultantly, some people died of hunger and hunger-related diseases while the government looked to the international community for relief food.
“Let’s hope things will not get worse next year,” said the Lilongwe resident.
“This is a sad development. We have the money but cannot find fertiliser in the shops. Even those who acquired loans from Malawi Rural Finance Company for fertiliser are not sure when they will collect the commodity from the fertiliser companies that deal with the financing company,” Sailas Gulule, a tobacco farmer and member of parliament from Kasungu lamented.
Like other farmers, Gulule feared low production at his farm because of the fertiliser scarcity. At the time of the interview — about two weeks ago — some of his constituents had not received the free fertiliser and seed (TIP), he claimed.
In the words of Tembo, the country has, and continues to receive, adequate rains. It can realise substantial surplus in terms of food if only the “logistical problems” are addressed and addressed now for fertiliser to be available to those who have the capacity to buy it for their crops.
|
