Stakeholders in the agriculture sector have asked government to consider remodeling the Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP).

The interested parties made the remarks during this year`s Agriculture Joint Sector Review (JSR) held in Lilongwe.

According to a representative of the development partners and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission Director, Dr Cattie Lottie, much as there is progress on AIP, there is need to fix the flagship programme if the country is to realise maximum benefits.

She said: “I think the question is that are we getting everything we could from the programme or we should be looking at more scaled back AIP mixed with other programmes?”

Responding to the plea, the responsible minister for agriculture Lobin Lowe has challenged researchers to conduct a thorough study to examine how the programme is benefiting targeted farmers in the country.

“When we talk of achievements, you may appreciate that other countries like South Sudan and Angola they are interested to import food from us we have already started with South Sudan which is an achievement,” said Lowe.

In the 2021/2022 national budget, Government allocated MK141.9875 billion for AIP; of which MK124.74 billion is earmarked for fertilizer purchases, MK1.26 billion for purchases of goats and MK12.25 billion for seed purchases.

Government also maintained the number of farming household who benefited in 2020-21 season who were 3,788,105.