The 12th edition of the Malawi Economic Monitor (MEM) by the World Bank, has described the Tonse Alliance administration’s Affordable Inputs Program (AIP) as unsustainable, calling on the administration to review it.

In the report, it has been outlined that AIP’s “huge financial  costs make it impossible for the government to maintain the scheme in future”. The World Bank report comes following  queries from the donor committee on agriculture over the efficiency of AIP.

In its latest Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) Report on Malawi, the  International Monetary Fund ( IMF )  proposed reforms to enhance the program’s efficiency and effectiveness. While low income households are counting on the program for affordable fertilizer, many have waited in vain. Recently, the Minister of Agriculture,  Lobin Lowe outlined that government is set to axe 21 firms from the program, for failing to deliver the fertilizer. He was addressing a news conference in Lilongwe and said out of 82 companies, only 61 are delivering. “We cannot keep the companies which have not yet started supplying at this time so we do not have options but to terminate the contracts,” he said.