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Although input subsidies are a popular policy intervention in Malawi, it remains unknown whether they improve productivity of nutrient-dense crops such as legumes, dietary quality, and child nutrition. This study addresses this important gap by examining these questions empirically using a decade-long nationally representative panel data set and panel regression models. ��� We find that subsidizing legume seeds increases area planted with legume crops, overall gross value of production, production and dietary diversity, calories, and micronutrient���vitamin A and zinc���consumption. We further found that subsidizing legume seeds is positively correlated with child weight-for-age Z-score but not height-for-age Z-score.

• Input subsidy programs (ISPs) in Malawi have aimed at improving farmersʼ access to quality farm inputs. • Subsidies have, at times, increased legume production and intercropping, which can improve household incomes and nutrition. • Maize productivity and production have increased, somewhat improving food security and national food self-sufficiency, but many households remain poor and vulnerable. • The incidence of poverty has not changed much since the introduction of the Farm Inputs Subsidy Program (FISP) in 2004/05. • Maize imports, real maize prices, and persistent food insecurity continue to rise, requiring distribution of food aid. • Early enthusiasm has begun to wane in the face of underwhelming improvement in several key areas. • The rate of maize productivity increase from ISPs is smaller than many expected, primarily attributable to low maize response rates to fertilizers. • The primary contributors to low maize yield response vary by location but can include soil biology (e.g., soil carbon), soil chemistry (e.g., pH), soil physics (e.g., sandy soils), and farm management. • Integrated soil fertility management practices and improved on-farm agronomic practices (e.g., application timing and weeding) could improve yield responses to fertilizers. • Policy reforms to improve the contribution of ISPs to farm-level productivity could include integrating complementary soil fertility management practices, such as organic fertilizers, improved targeting, and improving the efficiency of inputs supply chain systems.

• The Farm Input Subsidy Program (FISP) has been implemented since 2004, yet yields for key crops have remained low due to low crop response to inorganic fertilizers, which has limited the programʼs effect on food insecurity and poverty. • The poor response is partly attributed to poor soil health and low adoption rates of soil and water conservation practices. • Using data from a decade-long nationally representative panel, we analyze joint adoption effects of input subsidies and integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) on crop income and nutrition. • Participation in FISP is positively correlated with adoption of ISFM practices, including conservation agriculture, soil and water conservation, and organic fertilizers. • Joint use of input subsidies and ISFM practices is positively correlated with higher crop income and improved household nutrition. • Policy proposals to address low productivity and nutritional insecurity are highlighted

This paper examines determinants of the adoption of rainwater-harvesting technologies in a rain shadow area of southern Malawi. The most common ex situ technologies in the area were dams, and the widely used in situ technologies were box ridges, contour markers and swales. Adopters treated, on average, 80% of their farms with the rainwater-harvesting technologies, a move that significantly increased their food security status and incomes. The key finding of the study is that the choice of technologies was influenced by land slope and quality, farm size, soil texture, security of land tenure, education level of household head and extension support. The results therefore underscore the potential gains from rainwater-harvesting technologies in improving farmer income and food security, and the need to promote the technologies as a package, because a household may implement different technologies on the same field depending on diverse social, economic, institutional and environmental factors.

Sustainable agricultural practices could promote agricultural development. They have proven to improve soil structure, moisture content and reduce competition from weeds. There are, however, mixed reactions to the impacts of these technologies. Opponents argue that some technologies are labor intensive, bind nutrients in the soil and decrease crop yields in the short run. This study examines impacts of sustainable intensification strategies on maize output and household full income using random survey data from Malawi. The study employs multinomial endogenous switching regressions on a typology of farm households to isolate direct causal effects of these technologies. It triangulates the results with reduced form propensity score matching. Average Treatment Effects on the Treated are reported. Results indicate that socioeconomic, geographical and plot characteristics influence adoption decisions. Further, farmers who adopt sustainable agricultural practices such as improved seed and soil and water conservation have consistently more farm output and incomes than non-adopting households.

After six years with a large scale Farm Input Subsidy Program that enhanced national and household food security high costs resulted in a cut-back of the program in 2011/12 at the same time as the country was hit by a more serious drought in form of a dry spell in the rainy season. This study used household and farm plot level data combined with choice experiments to assess the impacts of the cut-back of the program and the drought on maize production and the performance of different maize varieties. The demand for improved maize seeds and adoption constraints were investigated and so was the knowledge and use of conservation technologies that in recent years have been introduced by a national level extension program. One of the effects of the cut-back is that the standard package is split and shared by two or more households. The drought resulted in a reduction in maize yields of 400 kg/ha. Many of the most commonly used hybrid maize varieties performed significantly better than local maize with yields about 600 kg/ha higher than local maize. About 4.3% of the maize plots were planted with the new ZM523 drought tolerant maize variety but it did not perform better than the hybrid maize varieties and has not yet become one of the popular varieties that are in high demand. About 35% of the households stated that they failed to obtain the most preferred maize variety and these were among the most commonly grown varieties, showing that there is scope for increased adoption of such varieties. Cash constraints and high prices for improved maize and fertilizer are limiting adoption, however, and continue to be a challenge for sustainable intensification of the maize-based production system. Newly introduced conservation technologies appear promising as one way to reduce the vulnerability to drought and enhance the fertilizer use efficiency.

Developing countries have been promoting initiatives that aim at reducing information asymmetry among market players especially smallholder farmers. Using co-integration error correction models, the study assessed effectiveness of modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) based market interventions in improving maize market efficiency in Malawi. Considering that efficient markets are integrated markets when price difference is only a factor of transaction costs, Threshold Autoregressive Error Correction (TAR) model assessed price transmission speed in pre – ICT and post – ICT periods in order to analyse effectiveness of modern ICTs. The spatial integration result shows that markets in Malawi were integrating. The results of TAR models in pre and post ICT periods shows that ICT based market interventions have positively influenced market integration and price transmission. Thus, modern ICTs have contributed to the reduction of search transaction costs leading to improved maize marketing efficiency. Based on the results, the study recommends the need to increase awareness of ICT based market interventions to all gender groups and improve market infrastructure in the country.

After six years with a large scale Farm Input Subsidy Program that enhanced national and household food security high costs resulted in a cut-back of the program in 2011/12 at the same time as the country was hit by a more serious drought in form of a dry spell in the rainy season. This study used household and farm plot level data combined with choice experiments to assess the impacts of the cut-back of the program and the drought on maize production and the performance of different maize varieties. The demand for improved maize seeds and adoption constraints were investigated and so was the knowledge and use of conservation technologies that in recent years have been introduced by a national level extension program. One of the effects of the cut-back is that the standard package is split and shared by two or more households. The drought resulted in a reduction in maize yields of 400 kg/ha. Many of the most commonly used hybrid maize varieties performed significantly better than local maize with yields about 600 kg/ha higher than local maize. About 4.3% of the maize plots were planted with the new ZM523 drought tolerant maize variety but it did not perform better than the hybrid maize varieties and has not yet become one of the popular varieties that are in high demand. About 35% of the households stated that they failed to obtain the most preferred maize variety and these were among the most commonly grown varieties, showing that there is scope for increased adoption of such varieties. Cash constraints and high prices for improved maize and fertilizer are limiting adoption, however, and continue to be a challenge for sustainable intensification of the maize-based production system. Newly introduced conservation technologies appear promising as one way to reduce the vulnerability to drought and enhance the fertilizer use efficiency. CIMMYT

The overall objective of this paper is to assess the demand for improved groundnut, bean, and soybean seed in central Malawi. Specifically, it examines how smallholder farmers respond to changes in market prices of improved legume seed. It also assesses factors that affect the decision to participate in improved seed technology transfer. Considering four commodities namely groundnuts, beans, soybeans and maize, a staple food, the paper estimates a multivariate probit and a linear approximate of the Almost Ideal Demand System (LA/AIDS) using cross section data collected by ICRISAT in 2010. Uncompensated price and expenditure elasticities are reported for the LA/AIDS model. The paper finds high own price elasticities in all four commodities considered. It also indicates that land, household size and education levels affect participation in improved technology. The results further reveal that improved groundnut seed has a substitutive relationship with soybeans. Groundnut and bean cross price elasticity showed an almost unitary relationship with groundnut but groundnut showed complementary relationship with maize seed. Beans showed a less than unitary substitutive relationship with soy and an elastic substitution with maize. Soybean had a substitutive relationship with all seed commodities in question. As pertain expenditure elasticities, farmers would increase expenditure on improved groundnut and beans if their incomes increased. The results also reveal that if farmers’ incomes increase they would reduce soybean’s expenditure share. The results generally show that farmers are very sensitive to changes in improved legume seed prices and incomes.

The government of Malawi in 2004 initiated an ICT-based Malawi Agricultural Commodity Exchange (MACE), a market information service project, to improve access by farmers to market information. MACE was intended to improve the efficiency of agricultural markets as part of the strategy to improve food security. This study uses quantitative methods to examine whether MACE has contributed to efficiency of rice markets in Malawi. It especially tests if MACE has contributed to spatial integration of rice markets. As hypothesized, the study finds that the tendency of rice prices to move together in spatially separated markets has significantly increased since the implementation of MACE. It concludes that ICT-based market information services improve the efficiency with which agricultural markets perform. The study discusses implications of this finding for policy.

National food security in Malawi depends on improving the performance of maize markets. Ensuring that grain is consistently available at tolerable prices is crucial for consumers’ food security. At the same time, surplus producing farmers need to receive farm-gate prices consistently above production costs to intensify the use of fertilizer and other productivity enhancing technologies in a sustainable manner. These concerns give rise to the classic food price dilemma for policy makers in Malawi: how to keep prices low enough to ensure low income consumers’ access to food while keeping prices high enough to promote farm production incentives. These tensions cannot be avoided but they can be relieved through reducing food marketing margins, which shrink the wedge between producer and consumer prices. Moreover, Malawi faces major political and economic problems associated with food price instability especially given its dependence on rain fed agriculture in a region prone to drought. These issues show that improving the performance of maize markets is at the core of achieving sustainable food security and poverty reduction in Malawi.

The overall objective of this paper is to assess the demand for improved groundnut, bean, and soybean seed in central Malawi. Specifically, it examines how smallholder farmers respond to changes in market prices of improved legume seed. It also assesses factors that affect the decision to participate in improved seed technology transfer. Considering four commodities namely groundnuts, beans, soybeans and maize, a staple food, the paper estimates a multivariate probit and a linear approximate of the Almost Ideal Demand System (LA/AIDS) using cross section data collected by ICRISAT in 2010. Uncompensated price and expenditure elasticities are reported for the LA/AIDS model. The paper finds high own price elasticities in all four commodities considered. It also indicates that land, household size and education levels affect participation in improved technology. The results further reveal that improved groundnut seed has a substitutive relationship with soybeans. Groundnut and bean cross price elasticity showed an almost unitary relationship with groundnut but groundnut showed complementary relationship with maize seed. Beans showed a less than unitary substitutive relationship with soy and an elastic substitution with maize. Soybean had a substitutive relationship with all seed commodities in question. As pertain expenditure elasticities, farmers would increase expenditure on improved groundnut and beans if their incomes increased. The results also reveal that if farmers’ incomes increase they would reduce soybean’s expenditure share. The results generally show that farmers are very sensitive to changes in improved legume seed prices and incomes.