Posted on September, 15, 2020 at 08:52 am
District Commissioner (DC) for Blantyre, Burnet Nkasala has urged Councils in the southern region to collaborate and coordinate with relevant stakeholders in order to make the newly introduced K160.2 billion worth Affordable Inputs Program (AIP) a success.
He said Friday during a regional briefing AIP in Blantyre that front liners in the project had a huge responsibility of ensuring that all players deliver to the maximum satisfaction, hence need for joint forces.
“Let me appeal to you that you need to engage with necessary stakeholders such as Council members, Area Development Committees (ADCs), Village Development Committees (VDCs) as well as the farmers so that they are made aware of the project.
“There is need for closer collaboration because this will help solve problems that will surface. Last time we had problems whereby some suppliers were offering substandard materials while others were refusing to go to the remotest areas. The coordination will therefore help deal with these kinds of problems,” Nkasala pointed out.
AIP Coordinator in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Justin Kagona said the programme aims at attaining food security at household level and reduce poverty levels.
He said suppliers would be allocated Extension Planning Areas (EPAs) through which they would be selling the inputs so that every household, regardless of where they are.
Kagona said that, “Buckets, detergents, hand sanitizers and reusable face masks will be given to all extension officers in the course of implementing the project to avoid further spread of Covid-19.”
Southern Region Community Policing Coordinator, Superintendent Clement Mwale assured that they are ready to render quality work in as far as issues of security are concerned.
The AIP will see a total number of 4, 279, 1,000 farming households benefiting from the project with a 50 kilogrammes bag of NPK and CAN respectively at K4, 995 each, as well as 5 Kilogrammes of seed.
Source: Malawi News Agency