Manesi Samukani a 46-year old maize farmer from Group Village Headman Mwangawa area says this being her third year in farming, she has managed to buy livestock and bricks as she plans to construct a house of her own.
A single mother of three, she is confident that after harvesting her crops this growing season and selling the maize, her dream of building a house will materialize as she has already bought iron sheets in readiness for the project.
The subsidized inputs initiative falls under the Response to Emergencies and Disasters (RED) component catering mostly for emergencies and disasters with the aim of reducing food insecurity for affected populations and restoring their livelihoods.
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The $3 million International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) sponsored programme followed President Peter Mutharika’s declaration of state of disaster related to food security on 25th October last year in Malawi’s 11 districts.
Samukani who is under Nyanja Extension Planning Area (EPA) spoke in praise of the subsidized farm inputs courtesy of the second component of the Sustainable Agriculture Production Programme (SAPP).
Its objectives among others is to boost government initiatives such as the Farm Input Subsidy Programme (FISP) where 2200 metric tonnes of fertilizers was procured together with1100 metric tones of NPK and 1100 metric tones of Urea.
Additionally, beneficiaries also received maize seed, targeting around 22,000 farmers with five kilogrammes bags; 17,950 beneficiaries from Lilongwe district and 4050 in Balaka.
The farmer also received free mkango seed expects to harvest more maize crop this year and she is excited with the rate at which her crop is growing.
The programme has enabled her to support her children’s education adding that hunger will be a thing of the past in her household and hoped the gesture could be extended to other areas of the country.
She confessed that during the time she was buying fertilizer without any support from the government or SAPP II, she wasn’t able to harvest much and didn’t have much food for consumption.
This time around things have just gotten better with the IFAD-funded farm inputs as it has made farming become easier.
As a single woman, she now finds farming quite an easy venture especially with the advice from extension workers who provide guidance and direction on how to properly care for their crops.
Together with her children, they are able to work together in the field noting that with the wheelbarrows from SAPP II, they are able to carry manure to their fields.
“My appeal to those people who just sit idle waiting for government’s assistance is that they should rather work with their hands as God helps those who help themselves first and they need to be courageous like me and work with agriculture extension workers on good farming practices.
Mwinga expressed gratitude for the farm inputs supported by IFAD expecting an improved yield.
“Under this SAPP II initiative, we are grateful for their support which has assisted us farmers to access affordable fertilisers and my appeal to them is that they should continue so that in the coming year more farmers can also benefit.
“I also appeal to fellow farmers that this fertiliser is not meant to be sold to vendors as this makes us to be in a perpetual cycle of poverty as they continue facing hunger because even after receiving this fertiliser subsidy, they don’t make maximum use of it which is not good”
He cited the buying of livestock, plots and building of houses and sending his children to school as some of the milestones attained through SAPP I and II projects.
Climate change, unpredictable weather patterns and pests and diseases are some of the challenges which have negatively affected his farming ventures but he nonetheless urges famers to follow professional advice.
“I encourage those farmers in Nyanja EPA who are not yet following advice from agriculture extension workers that they will be left behind as farming is crucial and helps most country’s economies and boosts food security in line with the current population boom to be able to harvest much on a small piece of land than clinging to traditional methods without knowing whether they are benefiting or not”