Swords into ploughshares

Mmegi Editor | Friday November 20, 2020 17:07

Following its initial hints that change was coming, government recently dealt them a shock to the system by revising the seasonal agricultural inputs programme known as ISPAAD or the Integrated Support Programme for Arable Agriculture Development.

Each season since its introduction in 2008, ISPAAD has provided farmers with various inputs such as seeds, tillage services, fertilisers, herbicides and others in the interests of increasing grain production and promoting food security at household and national level. The inputs are largely provided through grassroots level contractors and suppliers who sign up with the Ministry.

Taken as a whole, the expenditure under ISPAAD supports the rural economy and its associated offshoots such as the contractors and suppliers, while promoting food security.

However, the results of the billions spent on ISPAAD over the years have been poor, due partly to persistent droughts, imprudent planning methods and crop selection as well as rising corruption in the scheme.

By June, thanks to government’s hints, farmers knew that ISPAAD was under revision, as part of the new thinking under the Economic Recovery and Transformation Plan (ERTP), which intends to refocus state subsidies and eliminate inefficient expenditure. By July, an official figure was out: ISPAAD’s budget would be reduced by P284 million from the original budget of P684 million, as part of spending cuts across the board necessitated by Covid-19.

A fortnight ago, farmers found out that the reduced funding meant revised ISPAAD guidelines that, among others, reduce the hectares government will support with free tillage and seeds. The new guidelines also require soil tests for certain support, as a way of refocusing the subsidy and reducing inefficient expenditure.

Farmers say much of their frustration comes the fact that the roll out of the ISPAAD inputs for qualifying beneficiaries has apparently been delayed. The country is forecast to enjoy rare bountiful rains this season and farmers in some parts of the country have watched the onset of rains come and go without the necessary inputs such as tillage and seeds.

Many had cleared their fields as early as late September after the Department of Meteorological Services announced the healthy rain forecast for the 2020/21 cropping season. The frustration, as mentioned is understandable, but the anger appears to be focussed around the revised ISPAAD guidelines, a break from the 12 years farmers have enjoyed the subsidies.

As much as the revisions have scuppered the careful plans and projections subsistence farmers had, it must be noted that ISPAAD’s sustainability was always precarious. In fact, as the ERTP states, “substantial resources and support that have been provided for agriculture over the years have largely been wasted”.

As government shifts towards refocussed and output-based spending, there are no sacred cows and certainly ISPAAD has long been a candidate for a thorough revamp aimed at lifting the country’s food security.

Today’s thought

“If agriculture goes wrong, nothing

else will have a chance to go right.”

– M. S. Swaminathan