But what I want you to know is that I and my government cannot allow someone to kill agriculture in this country. Whether one likes it or not, farmers will buy fertilizer at a cheaper price this year,”- President of Malawi.
President of Malawi, Lazarus Chakwera in his speech after taking over Southern African Development Community (SADC) Chairmanship, in Lilongwe made it clear that he together with the government of Malawi will intervene to reduce the price of fertilizer in the country.
A 50-kilogram bag of chemical fertilizer cost last year ranged from $20 to $30. Now the cost of a bag of fertilizer in Malawi ranges from $40 to $50. This year has seen a double increase in the price making it difficult for farmers to purchase the needed fertilizers to keep their business moving.
Jacob Nyirongo Chief Executive Officer for Farmers Union of Malawi said, “Most farmers in Malawi are poor and it’s quite a struggle for farmers to access fertilizer even at the prices that they were like last year. So, the increase that we have seen this year means it is pushing more farmers to a bracket where most farmers won’t be able to access fertilizer.’
President of Malawi last year said, each farmer would be able to buy at least two bags of fertilizer at K4, 495.00 per bag in the 2020 to 2021 financial year. This he said during his campaign with his vice president Saulos Chilima.
Currently, in Malawi, farmers are facing the dire consequences of the high prices of fertilizers. They say the rise in fertilizer prices is likely to affect production in this agro-based Southern African country and agriculture experts say this would likely lead to higher costs for government-subsidized fertilizers under the Affordable Inputs Program, in which ultra-poor farmers buy at $6 per 50 kilograms bag.
In his nationally televised address on Saturday, the President explained that the high prices were a result of a cartel and said that it had tried to look down on his program. Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, the group said the rise is dictated by the international market which is facing the rise in fertilizer’s raw materials like phosphate.
In response to the rise in fertilizer prices, the Ministry of Agriculture announced in July that it has trimmed the number of beneficiaries of the subsidized farm input program this year from 3.7 million to 2.7 million.
However, President Chakwera has assured farmers to intervene in the high prices and to cause a reduction in the price. “I will not allow anyone to remove any family or village from the list of beneficiaries of the cheap fertilizer. This is taking the government for granted. If there are people I vowed to fight for, they are the farmers,” he added.
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