Nice warns farmers against abusing Fisp

The National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice) Public Trust has called on farmers that will benefit from the 2015/16 Farm Input Subsidy Programme (Fisp) to desist from selling the inputs, saying the malpractice defeats the purpose of the initiative.

Government is this year targeting 1.5 million resource-challenged farming families with subsidised fertilisers and seeds in its quest to make Malawi a food secure nation.

Nice national programme manager, Gray Kalindekafe noted in an interview that government may not realise Fisp’s goal if farmers continue selling inputs as has been the case in previous years.

“Nice is very concerned that farmers are abusing the initiative that was intended to improve their livelihoods. We are undertaking an initiative to sensitise beneficiaries because we believe that most of them are ignorant about the cost taxpayers are made to bear on Fisp,” said Kalindekafe.

He said the sensitisation initiative will be carried out alongside a project which aims at promoting good governance, transparency and accountability among duty-bearers.

“We are aiming to reduce Fisp abuse to zero. Nice Trust will be very interested to see poor farmers graduating from their status of destitution into middle class families through this programme,” he said.