{"id":9941,"date":"2021-11-20T16:04:18","date_gmt":"2021-11-20T16:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/chakwera-blasts-aip-critics-2"},"modified":"2021-11-21T16:51:49","modified_gmt":"2021-11-21T16:51:49","slug":"chakwera-blasts-aip-critics-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/chakwera-blasts-aip-critics-2","title":{"rendered":"Chakwera blasts AIP critics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Malawi. <\/strong><\/span>President Lazarus Chakwera says complaints about cost of the Affordable Inputs Program (AIP) come from people who live in ivory towers on a full stomach.<\/p>\n

The Malawi leader has since declared that his administration will not abandon AIP, saying the cost of keeping Malawi a hungry nation that begs for food is far greater than the cost of the AIP.<\/p>\n

He made the remarks at the official opening of the 17th National Agricultural Fair at Chichiri Trade Fair Grounds, Blantyre.<\/p>\n

Chakwera said the need to achieve permanent food security cannot be overemphasized as there is no honour in being a country that starves or begs for food.<\/p>\n

He then said that the biggest achievement of the AIP is not that there are 3.7 million farming households with something to eat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest achievement of the AIP is that there are 3.7 million farming households able to walk with heads held high from being able to produce so much with their hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cAIP has injected a spirit of self-reliance in our citizens, a spirit that others were content to keep broken.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must never easily surrender the things that give us a sense of national pride, nor must we trivialize such things, as some seem to be in the habit of doing,\u201d said Chakwera.<\/p>\n

The Malawi leader added that AIP has made it possible for Malawi to achieve food surpluses in all food grains for the first time in a long time and the surplus in maize alone is in excess of 1.2 million metric tonnes.<\/p>\n

Chakwera then noted that there are those who complain about the cost of the AIP, which was allocated K142 billion in the 2021\/22 financial year.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut such complaints are the luxury of the few who live in ivory towers on a full stomach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cost of keeping Malawi a hungry nation that begs for food is far greater than the cost of the AIP. As such, while we are actively seeking alternative and cheaper ways of achieving food security, we must never entertain the abandonment of AIP until such alternatives are fully developed,\u201d said Chakwera.<\/p>\n

On National Agriculture Fairs, Chakwera said they are critical to Malawi\u2019s quest for greater productivity. He added that fairs add value to that pursuit by disseminating information to farmers on the right varieties to plant and when, the type of fertilisers and chemicals to apply and where to obtain them, the markets where their produce is in demand, and so on.<\/p>\n

He further talked about the importance of agriculture, saying it is asector that creates most jobs and where Malawi\u2019s exports and forex earning are growing from.<\/p>\n

He added that making Malawi\u2019s agriculture sector a success is foundational to diversifying the country\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

According to Chakwera, economies of countries such as United States and China tick because of agriculture.<\/p>\n

He therefore argued it should not be regarded as a liability that over 80 percent of Malawians are engaged in primary agriculture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must never forget that a citizen who grows their own crop is the closest thing to a citizen who prints his own money,\u201d says Chakwera.<\/p>\n

Govt raises price of AIP fertilizer<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Malawi<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Malawi. President Lazarus Chakwera says complaints about cost of the Affordable Inputs Program (AIP) come from people who live in ivory towers on a full stomach. The Malawi leader has since declared that his administration will not abandon AIP, saying the cost of keeping Malawi a hungry nation that begs for food is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":9940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,9],"tags":[268,233,371,1079,306,234],"class_list":["post-9941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-miscellaneous","tag-affordable-input-programme-aip","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-malawi","tag-farmers","tag-lazarus-chakwera","tag-malawi"],"yoast_head":"\nChakwera blasts AIP critics - Malawi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"President Lazarus Chakwera says complaints about cost of the Affordable Inputs Program (AIP) come from people who live i ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/chakwera-blasts-aip-critics-2\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chakwera blasts AIP critics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"President Lazarus Chakwera says complaints about cost of the Affordable Inputs Program (AIP) come from people who live i ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/chakwera-blasts-aip-critics-2\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Malawi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-11-20T16:04:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-11-21T16:51:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2021\/11\/img-619a7903d5aeb.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/chakwera-blasts-aip-critics-2#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/chakwera-blasts-aip-critics-2\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Chakwera blasts AIP critics\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-20T16:04:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-21T16:51:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/chakwera-blasts-aip-critics-2\"},\"wordCount\":538,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/chakwera-blasts-aip-critics-2#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2021\/11\/img-619a7903d5aeb.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Affordable Input Programme (AIP)\",\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Malawi\",\"Farmers\",\"Lazarus Chakwera\",\"Malawi\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"miscellaneous\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/chakwera-blasts-aip-critics-2#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/chakwera-blasts-aip-critics-2\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/chakwera-blasts-aip-critics-2\",\"name\":\"Chakwera blasts AIP critics - 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