E22M WASTE AS FARM INPUTS LEFT TO ROT

MBABANE – The food crisis faced by the country seems to be far from over as government has ‘wasted’ about E22 million in farm inputs that are now rotting in various depots.

In fact, government has now been left with no choice but to dispose of tonnes of spoilt farm inputs worth about E22 million after failing to distribute them timely to the farmers for the ploughing season. Most of these farm inputs were stored at the different Regional Development Area (RDA) depots countrywide. Due to serious food shortages in the country and farmers complaining about high prices for the inputs, government came up with a project to assist the farmers through subsidised fertilisers, seed and lime, among other items.

The farmers were to buy the inputs at subsidised prices.
Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture Bongani Masuku said last year, the project had been planned to cater for 21 500 farmers, who had shown keen interest in the subsidy project by government.

However, Masuku said it was an unfortunate situation that government purchased enough inputs for all 21 500 farmers, only to find that less than 10 000 ended up paying for the seeds and fertilisers.

Normally, Masuku said government paid 50 per cent of the farm inputs and the rest was catered for by the farmers.
“Each farmer pays about E2 000 then government pays the rest,” he said. The PS clarified though that it was government’s loss and not the farmers’. He attributed the low turnout of farmers to the drought, adding that they had anticipated good rains but this was not the case.
He said the farm inputs could no longer be used this season as they were already spoilt.

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