Sales temporarily suspended at SFFRFM depot.
Farners accuse authorities of favouritism.
There was commotion Monday afternoon as some Affordable Inputs Programme-AIP beneficiaries in Kasungu scrambled for their turns on long queues to purchase the farm inputs at the Smallholder Farmers Fertilizer Revolving Fund of Malawi-SFFRFM depot.
Some farmers nearly exchanged blows as they competed for spaces to purchase first. They disclosed being at the depot for some days without buying the inputs and their patience was now wearing out.
It took police intervention to calm the situation. Meanwhile, sales have been suspended at the depot.
One of the farmers from Chitete Village, Traditional Authority Kaomba attributed the chaos to lack of enough selling points of the farm inputs.
Yet others accuse authorities at depot for giving preferential treatment to some people “with names and connections”.
A SFFRFM officer the Kasungu Town depot says the sales will resume tommorow, Tuesday; saying another depot has been mounted at Chithiba to mitigate the congestion challenge.
Previously, Agriculture Minister Sam Kawale disclosed they would introduce mobile markets to reduce congestion in designated selling depots but the challenges still persist.
His ministry earlier pledged to reach out to all the 2.5 million AIP beneficiaries by January this year.
