Small Farmers in Malawi are yet to know if they are going to benefit from this year’s affordable farm inputs program AIP. This has cast a threat on the harvest of the country’s staple grain this coming season as fertilizer prices have been accelerating on the market.

Our spot checks in the country’s main markets across all the three regions has shown that a 50 kilo gram of NPK or Urea fertilizer is being sold at about 60 to 75 thousand Malawi which is about 58.57 to 73.21 united states US Dollars.

According to the executive Director for Centre for Social Concern (CfSC) in Malawi Bernard Mphepo, maize prices may go up by more than double compared to prices for the staple grain in 2021. Current maize prices across the country are in the ranges of K20, 000 and K25, 000 per 50 kilograms (kg) bag, which is about 19.6 to 24.5 US dollars.

He further said, this is posing threats to maize prices, which may increase to 40, 000 about 39.04 US dollars or above, if the market is not well regulated.

This has prompted Action Aid Malawi to call on farmers in the country to start using both inorganic and organic fertilizers in their farming activities in a bid to preserve soil fertility and increase crop production.

This comes at a time when crop production is said to have drastically reduced in recent years due to loss of soil fertility.

Executive Director for Action Aid-Malawi Pamela Kuwali, said “Organic fertilizer is useful to preserve nutrients of the soil whereas the inorganic one is rich in nutrients, combining the two would help famers benefit a lot in their farming, especially at this time when fertilizer prices in the country has drastically gone high”.

In 2022/23 National budget, the Affordable farm Input program was allocated K109.5 billion which is lower than last year’s K142 billion. From the whole amount budgeted for K12 billion is expected to be invested in subsidizing maize seeds. This is to leave the fertilizer budget at K97 billion.