Thyolo District Commissioner, Douglas Moffat, told Zodiak Online that they expected to achieve 100 percent registration of all the targeted beneficiaries with access to labour by close of business on Thursday last week.

"Our technicians are on the ground to finalising the registration and linking up with the local people so that come rains, our people should be able to access the inputs," Moffat said.

This year's AIP district figure has been trimmed, but according to Moffat, the government will provide the labour constrained 34, 000 households with money and free food for four months in the supplementary cash transfer programme under the Disaster and Recovery Programme.

One of the prospective AIP beneficiaries, John Grant from Chilombo Village, Sub-Traditional Authority Mangazi, is happy, but fears the reduced figures translate to hunger in the district.

"This year, I believe there will be problems in AIP. I am one of the beneficiaries in Chilombo Village. For instance, last year, in our village around 550 were benefiting, but this year only 130 have been considered. So, many people have been left out and this would result in hunger," he worried.

Meanwhile, President Lazarus Chakwera is scheduled to address the nation on Tuesday regarding the status of this year's AIP and other matter of importance, according to State House communique.