Thursday, May 26, 2022
  • About Us
  • ImagiNATION
  • Adverts
  • Rate Card
  • Contact Us
The Nation Online
Advertisement
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Life & Style
    • Every Woman
      • Soul
      • Family
    • Religion
    • Feature
  • Society
  • Columns
  • Sports
  • Chichewa
  • Enation
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Life & Style
    • Every Woman
      • Soul
      • Family
    • Religion
    • Feature
  • Society
  • Columns
  • Sports
  • Chichewa
  • Enation
No Result
View All Result
No Result
View All Result
Home Columns Cut the Chaff

I hate to burst the bubble, but AIP is a colossal failure

by Ephraim Munthali
15/05/2021
in Cut the Chaff
4 min read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on WhatsAppShare on LinkedinLinkedinShare via Email

The Tonse administration believes it has pulled off a joker with the Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP), touting it as its single most successfully executed campaign promise that catapulted the alliance and its leader Lazarus Chakwera into State House and the levers of government power.

Even yesterday, President Chakwera, speaking during the State Opening of the Third Meeting in the 49th Session of Parliament and the 2021/22 Budget Meeting in Lilongwe yesterday, could not help, but gush and self-congratulate.

“Agriculture remains the main driver of the projected growth in 2021 on account of the rolling out of the Affordable Inputs Programme [AIP]. Crop production, which grew by only 3.4 percent in 2020, is expected to accelerate to 7.1 percent in 2021, reflecting the level of success brought about by the AIP, a success, which every well-meaning Malawian ought to applaud.”

It is true that AIP is the most radical reform of agricultural subsidies in Malawi since the introduction of the Farm Input Subsidy Programme (Fisp) in 2005/06. Sure, more people cultivated more maize on their land this year than ever before.

With well distributed rainfall, very little fall army worms and locusts visiting fields coupled by minimal droughts and flooding, aggregate national crop output, especially maize, has been great.

Malawi is expected to produce around four million metric tonnes of maize, surpassing the 3.7 million metric tonnes outturn for last year.

But guess what?

In percentage terms, that is an increase of just eight percent or a paltry 300 000 tonnes more than what Fisp produced in 2020.

But if you look at the numbers—both in terms of the cost of the programme and the beneficiaries, AIP is the most wasteful and most unproductive welfare programme ever in Malawi. At K160 billion, the AIP budget is 357 percent more than Fisp’s K35 billion.

You mean as a country, we spent 357 percent more of taxpayers’ money to increase yield by less than eight percent? And we call it success?

AIP reached 3.8 million faming households against Fisp’s 900 000, representing an increase of at least 322 percent. You mean the additional 2.9 million households that AIP added to the beneficiary list only added 300 0000 metric tonnes to the national maize output when just 900 000 in Fisp could produce 3.7 million?

I mean, has Tonse worsened governing mediocrity so much that such spending inefficiency can be touted as success by no less a person than the President of the Republic of Malawi?

Is that how Tonse will define its success on food security, wealth and job creation—the three focus areas for the administration over the next four years?

Government quadrupled the inputs subsidy budget and doubled the country’s agriculture budget just to add a measly eight percent to crop output and then proceeded to celebrate this mediocrity endlessly?

Are we, as a people, so cursed that we believe handclapping—even for the most bizarre of success claims—can rid us of the spell we are under?

If you look at how these a g r i c u l t u r a l s u b s i d i e s , especially AIP this year, have worsened budget deficits as a ratio of gross domestic product (GDP) over the past 15 years; if you look at the fraction of the budget that AIP has grabbed compared to output, you wouldn’t be celebrating.

Ironically, the President himself acknowledges that some of this expenditure cannot be sustained and are worsening budget deficits.

He said in Parliament on Wednesday: “Madam Speaker, during the past three years, fiscal deficits have been widening, from 4.6 percent of GDP during the 2018/19 fiscal year to 8.8 percent of GDP during the 2020/21 fiscal year, resulting in the rise of the public debt stock. The widening fiscal deficit is largely attributed to growth in expenditure that is beyond available resources, which has forced government to turn to domestic borrowing, with consequences for the real sector in the form of crowding out effects and higher interest rates.”

Meanwhile, President Chakwera is relying on AIP—consumption spending to produce maize, most of which is consumed by the producing households anyway—to return the economy to growth rates that are high enough to make Malawi a middle income country by 2030.

Some jokes are really mirthless. n

With Ephraim Munthali

‘…if you look at the numbers— both in terms the cost of the programme and the beneficiaries, AIP is the most wasteful and most unproductive welfare programme ever in Malawi. At K160 billion, the AIP budget is 357 percent more than Fisp’s K35 billion’ Feedback: emunthali@mwnation.com

Previous Post

Challenging your non-saving mindset

Next Post

Of paying the cost of executive arrogance

Related Posts

Cut the Chaff

The economy will bite, hard

May 7, 2022
Cut the Chaff

MPs look away as Gwengwe sells debt dummies

March 26, 2022
Before the storm: Mutharika (R) conferring with Nankhumwa
Cut the Chaff

DPP in buttocks battle embarrassing

March 12, 2022
Next Post

Of paying the cost of executive arrogance

Opinions and Columns

Business Unpacked

Tame egos, take risks to grow economy

May 26, 2022
People’s Tribunal

What was that press briefing all about?

May 22, 2022
Big Man Wamkulu

Wife, in-law plotting my downfall

May 22, 2022
My Thought

Tonse Alliance died on arrival

May 22, 2022

Trending Stories

  • Mutharika on the campaign trail in 2019

    APM under pressure

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Musician Martse in hospital after fire accident

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Kalindo earmarked for diplomatic post

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Nyasa Mobile Limited partners Vodafone

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Blantyre-based artists see off Martse

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Malawi-Music.com Top10

  • Values
  • Our Philosophy
  • Editorial policy
  • Advertising Policy
  • Code of Conduct
  • Plagiarism disclaimer
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use

© 2022 Nation Publications Limited. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Life & Style
    • Every Woman
      • Soul
      • Family
    • Religion
    • Feature
  • Society
  • Columns
  • Sports
  • Chichewa
  • Enation

© 2020 Nation Publications Limited. All Rights Reserved.

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.