proposed by the National Voucher Steering Committee (NVSC). Membership in the forum included public sector representatives at the national, regional and district level as well as representatives of the private sector, particularly fertilizer companies, seed companies, agrodealer associations, farmer organizations, and civil society organizations. The forum’s broad membership was intended to encourage the participation of all concerned groups and to ensure transparency in implementing the voucher system. The forum was chaired by the Minister of MAFC and met twice a year.

The NVSC provided policy guidance and oversees project implementation. The NVSC met every two months and was chaired by the Permanent Secretary of MAFC and included representatives of the Ministry of Finance, Prime Minister’s Office, Regional Administration and Local Government, directors of relevant MAFC departments, and representations of national farmer organizations, agribusinesses that produce, import and market inputs, civil society, and the partner bank National Microfinance Bank (NMB). The NVSC set the criteria for allocating vouchers and guidelines for implementation of NAIVS at all levels, and reviewed the integrity of the voucher system, approved annual work plans, and addressed all implementation issues.

The Agricultural Input Section (AIS) was a section within the Directorate of Crop Development Department of the MAFC and was responsible for day-to-day management of NAIVS and for providing support to NVSC. The Head of Agricultural Input Section (HAIS) served as the NVSC Secretary. He was assisted by staff from other departments and sections of MAFC including one planning officer, one fertilizer and soil nutrition management specialist, one monitoring and evaluation officer, one accounting officer, one procurement officer, and one communication specialist.

# **NAIVS implementation**

At regional level, the Regional Voucher Committee (RVC) supported districts and monitored the implementation of the voucher scheme in the region. The RVC was responsible for allocating vouchers to districts based on established criteria; estimating demand for agricultural inputs, based on historical input-use data, and providing this information to AIS; reviewing information collected from each district, including data on production, cropped area, input use, prices and marketable surplus; informing districts about their voucher allocations and initiating further allocation of vouchers to Wards and Villages by the local government authorities; helping to monitor implementation of the voucher scheme; and compiling NAIVS progress reports from the districts to submit to the NVSC Secretariat.

The District Voucher Committee (DVC) was made up of the District Agriculture and Livestock Officer (DALDO) and representatives of farmer groups, agro-dealers, and civil society and NMB and established under the chairmanship of the District Commissioner. In close collaboration with the respective district NAIVS Forum, the DVC implemented the voucher scheme in its respective district. In addition to allocating vouchers to wards and villages based on established criteria, the DVC monitored implementation at the village level and prepared and submitted implementation progress reports to the RVC for transmittal to AIS at the national level.

Finally, the Village Assembly (VA), in consultation with the Village Council and Village Government, organized the election of the Village Voucher Committee (VVC) members (three 3