Malawi has denied farm sub­si­dies to those who do not have voter reg­is­tra­tion cards. The gov­ern­ment claims that it will help pre­vent fraud in the sys­tem. But advo­cates for the poor and small farm­ers says it hurt those who need the sub­sides the most.

From the IPS, writer Claire Ngozo gives us the details.

Gina Champiti, a wid­owed mother of eight chil­dren aged between three and 12 did not reg­is­ter to vote in the May pres­i­den­tial and par­lia­men­tary elec­tions. This is going to cost her her livelihood.

Because she does not have a voter iden­tity card, she will no longer be allowed to ben­e­fit from the country’s agri­cul­tural subsidy.

The fer­tiliser and seed sub­sidy pro­gramme, intro­duced in Malawi in 2004, has turned the coun­try into a bread bas­ket for the South­ern African Devel­op­ment Com­mu­nity (SADC). The pro­gramme focuses on small­holder farm­ers who can­not afford pro­duc­tion needs such as seed and fer­tiliser at nor­mal mar­ket prices.

In the past peo­ple who were poor and vul­ner­a­ble were iden­ti­fied by chiefs and dis­trict assem­blies to ben­e­fit from the sub­sidy. But most ben­e­fi­cia­ries were sell­ing the coupons to the “not-so-poor”, who would col­lect the sub­sidised prod­ucts for use in their own gardens.

And now, post elec­tion, Andrew Daudi, prin­ci­pal sec­re­tary in Malawi’s Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture, announced that the 1.6 mil­lion farm­ers to ben­e­fit from this year’s sub­sidy will be only those who reg­is­tered to vote in the pres­i­den­tial elec­tions this year.

“The deci­sion is dis­crim­i­na­tory and will make many peo­ple suf­fer. I do not see a con­nec­tion between reg­is­ter­ing for elec­tions and agri­cul­tural sub­si­dies,” said Champiti, whose eight chil­dren are aged between three and 12.

Malawi suf­fered seri­ous food short­ages in 2005, and up to five mil­lion peo­ple were hun­gry, but just three years later the coun­try pro­duced a bumper har­vest attrib­uted to the agri­cul­tural sub­sidy system.

The ben­e­fi­cia­ries of the sys­tem receive two coupons – one allow­ing them to buy seed and the other fer­tiliser at a sub­sidised rate. Champiti was one of the 1.2 mil­lion farm­ers who ben­e­fited from the subsidy.

Champiti told IPS she was too poor to afford fer­tiliser. “I couldn’t take time out to go and reg­is­ter. I am always busy work­ing to ensure that my chil­dren have food,” Champiti said.

Daudi said the deci­sion had been made to make sure the gov­ern­ment stamped out the fraud that had rocked the pro­gramme in the past four years. “The voter iden­tity cards are backed by appro­pri­ate data. The num­ber and the name on the card will be used to ver­ify the intended ben­e­fi­ciary,” said Daudi. He said this process would help the gov­ern­ment in ensure that the coupon was used by the tar­geted ben­e­fi­ciary only.

Some civil ser­vants admin­is­ter­ing the pro­gramme would also sell the coupons to peo­ple not on the list of ben­e­fi­cia­ries. Some politi­cians – espe­cially those within the gov­ern­ment – were abus­ing the sys­tem by acquir­ing coupons and dis­trib­ut­ing them to fam­ily and friends.

Malawi has no national iden­tity card, so the voter reg­is­tra­tion card fills the gap, and helps stop the ghost ben­e­fi­cia­ries, Daudi says.

Like

Unlike