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(NYASATIMES) Malawi poor failed by corruption in fertiliser programme

Malawi poor failed by corruption in fertiliser programme
By Nyasa Times
Published: February 9, 2010

A research article on Malawi’s fertiliser subsidy programme claims organised crime and corruption linked to the scheme has undermined its potential benefits for the poor.

The fertiliser subsidy programme has been heralded by the international community and organisations such as the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) as a successful pro-poor strategy.

However, Richard Tambulasi, a senior lecturer at the University of Malawi in Department of Political and Administrative Studies, claims that corrupt local officials are working with organised gangs to take advantage of the fertiliser subsidy programme.

His article is featured in African Security Review published by the Institute of Security Studies, South Africa. He is now carrying out further research based on some of the preliminary findings in his article.

“The main finding is that the fertiliser subsidy programme has increased avenues for corruption in Malawi. Criminals take advantage of corruption in the country as a mode of operation to get subsidised fertilisers which they either sell locally at higher prices or smuggle to neighbouring countries,” Tambulasi (pictured) told Panos.

Tambulasi who is pursuing a doctorate degree in public policy and management at Univeristy of Manchester said details of the link have to be established in order to develop a comprehensive and effective mechanism for dealing with organised crime and addressing corruption.

“If the link is not well understood, attempts to deal with either of these two will be short-lived as they will only address symptoms of the problem rather than the complex root causes,” he said.

The fertiliser subsidy programme, which was launched in 2005 to help boost Malawi’s food self-reliance capacity, offers fertiliser to poor farmers at a considerably lower rate than market value.

Beneficiaries of the programme were given coupons to purchase the subsidised fertiliser. For example, the 2007 market price for fertiliser was K4, 000 but under the programme the subsidised fertiliser cost K950.

He said the research revealed to international dimension in the fertiliser theft syndicate.

“Globalisation has helped because these crimes have been internationalised. You find instances where the fake coupons are printed in South Africa, as it had advanced technologies that are likely to make the coupons very difficult to detect.

“You also have instances where the fertiliser is sold in neighbouring countries, where it fetches very high prices. Zambia, for example, has been a preferred destination, as well as Tanzania and Mozambique which have been reported destinations.”

Tambulasi said in his research he has made policy recommendations designed to help policy-makers in terms of strengthening the programme so that loopholes for corruption are minimised, hence cutting the involvement of organised criminals in the programmes.

Labels: FSP, MALAWI

posted by MrK @ 2:00 PM