(left to right) Dennis Sunanibamba (Pemba region cooperative leader), Willard, myself, and my host father Silas Muzuma (the other Pemba region cooperative leader) sitting on government subsidized fertilizer waiting to be picked up by local smallholder farmers (December 2009)
Agricultural inputs, such as fertilizer, seeds, and pesticides/herbicides, are critical to crop production. These fertilizers are expensive and sometimes hard to access. Because agriculture plays such a backbone and critical role in the economic well-being of southern Africa and in the livelihoods of its people, various national governments enacted an input subsidy program.
The case of MalawiIn the neighbouring country of Malawi, for instance, in 1998 the national government started a subsidy program to respond to increased food deficits, increased maize prices, and reliance on food aid and food imports. The Malawi subsidy program went through two critical transformations to continuously improve the program. The first program distributed small packages of fertilizer and maize seeds to smallholder farmers for free. This saw a temporary increase in production across the nation but only to result in failure later on due to program inefficiencies, the lack of targeting toward the poorest of the poorest, and the creation of negative impact toward crop diversification. With the slide back to reliance on food aid, the national government decided to turn program efficiency around 180 degrees by engaging in the private sector through a voucher system. By 2006 and 2007, Malawi experienced two years of great harvests. While the situation is far from perfect in Malawi, is the case in Zambia anywhere near as rosie? Not in the least .
Zambian political cancer
While living in Pemba during rainy season (November and December 2009), my planned facilitation activities were greatly disturbed. Farmers were busy preparing their fields and trying to secure agricultural inputs and had no time to attend NGO-workshops. Why should it consume majority of smallholder farmers time? Should subsidy programs be more simple, quick and easy? It's definitely not the case in Zambia. The Zambian Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MACCO) subsidizes 60% of the cost of a 4x50 kg bag (2 x pack of basal dressing, 2 x pack of top dressing) of fertilizer. In order to be eligible for fertilizer subsidies, smallholder farmers need to be part of a co-operative. Within the cooperative, every year in late November/early December (beginning of rainy season), farmers pay their cooperative leaders the remaining 40% of fertilizer costs and have to fill out a wad of paperwork. On behalf of the smallholder farmers, the cooperative leaders then have to travel to a nearby town (sometimes as afar as 100 km away), with all the forms and money, book their own transportation, stand in HUGE line ups, and if they are lucky, will they then receive the government funded fertilizer on the same day. If not, the cooperative leaders have to pay for accommodations out of their own pocket. This process may take up to a week before the coop leaders receive all the fertilizer. Imagine... farmer cooperative leaders from all parts of the surrounding area travel to the same depot for pick-up. It tends to be chaotic and disorganized (refer to image below). Once the cooperative leaders receive all that was requested and paid for, they have to travel back home with their rented flat bed trucks filled with the goods. Once at home, cooperative leaders will either distribute the fertilizer or have a pick up depot in the center of town.
In the past, instead of having co-op leaders travel, the government would instead deliver the fertilizer to local depots. Unfortunately with this arrangement, fertilizer would mysteriously "disappear" en route. This is government corruption at its best. Farmers have complained, NGO's have raised concerns, but with a unreliable law enforcement system, nothing has been done to fix this extremely inefficient and corrupt process.
Outreach is also dismal. Pemba has approximately 4000 farmers. Only around 250 of those belong to co-operatives. Out of the 250, only 60% receive this elusive government subsidy. Furthermore, there is no separation between those who are vulnerable and those who are not. This results in extreme corruption and the fertilizer getting into the wrong hands and those who actually don't need it.
Their refusal to budge from the status quo, despite its inefficiencies and being plagued with corruption, allows government members to use the fertilizer subsidy program to maintain the power to swindle and a public presence amongst Zambian citizens.
Alternative solutionsHow do you weed out corruption? How do you make the program more efficient? The answer lies in the private sector. When the profit bottom-line is introduced, unnecessary red-tape and corruption can be sieved out. Instead of distributing the fertilizer themselves, the government should allow the process to be run through the market system, by providing citizens with vouchers. Zambian smallholder farmers will then be able to redeem these vouchers through local agro-dealers and input distributors. Not only will the government be able to maintain its presence amongst the people, but it also allows for the strengthening of the local economy through the support of private small-medium enterprises in rural communities all over Zambia. Furthermore, with the increasing use and reliance on mobile phones, even amongst smallholder farmers in the most remote parts of the country, the option of mobile transfer of funds or mobile vouchers is definitely viable.
So what is the government waiting for? The Zambian government doesn't want change. They fear change will bring about the loss of control over a highly coveted system that is rich for swindling and a system that manages to hold majority of Zambian's population by their necks.
Unless Zambia elects new leaders, external from the old-guard that has lead the nation since the 1960's independence era, this inefficient political cancer will continue to plague the nation for years to come.
Hundreds of farmers waiting at a depot in Monze, Zambia to receive government subsidized fertilizer
The photo above is of a delicacy found here in southern Africa called Inswa (in Zambia it's called inswa... I'm not sure what it's called in Malawi). This insect comes out during the rainy season in large numbers. Locals, like my family in Pemba, capture them, fry them, salt them, and eat them up. Some Zambians and Malawians even eat Inswa in handfuls like peanuts. You can buy a bag of these buggers for approximately $0.50 US on street markets and just go wild. At first, I was a little grossed out... but being true to my principles I gave it a try and, not surprisingly, I ended up loving them! I finished a bag full! Though apparently they're extremely fattening. I'll lay off the fried insect diet for a while... need to stay fit!
Malawian boys trying to sell us bags of inswa as we drove by
