Police in Mzuzu have arrested a 41-year-old man for allegedly possessing 17 bags of counterfeit fertilizer weighing 50 kilograms each.

Mzuzu Police Spokesperson Paul Tembo says the suspect Blessings Nyirenda has been arrested in the city following a tip-off that the businessperson was reprocessing and repackaging the fertilizer in NPK sacks belonging to Smallholder Farmers Fertilizer Revolving fund of Malawi (SFFRFM).

“We have been working together with the Malawi Bureau Standards (MBS) who got the wind about this illegal business. Our officers then moved in quickly and arrested the suspect who is being kept at Mzuzu Police Station waiting for a court appearance,’’ said Tembo.

Malawi Bureau of Standards Regional Manager for the north Kissinger Chiunjira  says the fertilizer will be taken to the organization’s laboratory for testing.

Said Chiunjira: “We have the fertilizer in our custody because we want to know what chemicals were being used to repackage and reprocess it.”

In mid-August this year, Lilongwe Police Station also found 92 bags of fake fertilizer at a house at Sankhani Village in Traditional Authority Njewa in the district.

Access to genuine fertilizer coupled with high prices has been a pressing issue in the country, impacting crop yields and agricultural productivity.