The Agricultural Technicians Union of Malawi has suspended its sit-in and court injunction aiming at stopping the implementation of affordable farm inputs programme.
The Technicians have been on strike since 11 May this year and last week they went to court seeking an order against the enrollment of the program over purported failure by government to address their grievances.
In an interview with YFM Online, Chairperson for the Isaac Kwisongole said they have decided to resume work following discussion they had with the Ministry of Agriculture.
“We have decided to uplift the sit-in that we started on 11 May 2020 up to yesterday, this so because of the interface meeting we conducted with officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and we received a commitment letter which we will be following,” said Kwisongole.
He has however stressed the Technicians will resume the sit-in if the responsible ministries will not walk their talk on the discussions they had in the specified period of 21-days.
“Our aim is to make our issues resolved and we are hopeful that the Ministry will work through its promises in collaboration with Local Government Ministry through Councils and if not we are geared to resume our strike after the collapse of 21 working days,” said Kwisongole.
Earlier this month, government announced the increase of beneficiaries of the newly introduced Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) which has replaced the Farm Input Subsidy Programme (FISP).
According to the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Lobin Lowe, the programme intends to benefit 4.2 million farming households in the country.
