Findings of a new study have shown that smallholder farmers in the country will remain poor even if they achieve productivity through various interventions, including State-funded farm inputs subsidies.
Titled ‘Five misconceptions distorting food policy in Malawi’, the study was jointly conducted by the National Planning Commission (NPC) and International Food Policy Research Institute (Ifpri). NPC director general Fredrick Changaya and Ifpri senior research fellow Joachim de Weerdt are among the report’s authors.
The report decries the fact that despite being among countries not affected by conflict, Malawi has the lowest gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and that its economy has been shrinking for much of the past five years.
Reads the report: “External shocks have undoubtedly strained an already fragile economy, but policy choices have further stifled growth and amplified vulnerabilities.
“It is unlikely that Malawi’s food security goals, whether limited to fulfilling energy requirements or expanded to include stable access to nutritious foods, will be met by subsidising smallholders to produce maize for home consumption.”
In general terms, the report says policies and investments premised on the assumption that most Malawian farmers are subsistence producers rest on a mischaracterisation of rural livelihoods and can lead to seriously distorted policy choices.
On how yields rise yet poverty remains so pervasive, the report said most farmers cultivate plots that are too small to translate higher yields into meaningful absolute income gains.
It said agronomic excellence in traditional crops is therefore not a pathway out of poverty, explaining that many would need to shift to higher value crops or livestock to diversify into off-farm activities or exit primary agriculture altogether.
“This is why investments outside primary crop production are so critical. The implication for policy is clear: while improving farm productivity remains important, expanding opportunities beyond the farm is essential for broad-based wealth creation in Malawi,” it added.
National Smallholder Farmers Association of Malawi (Nasfam) is already on record as having urged the government to review the Farm Inputs Subsidy Programme (Fisp) to make it effective while positively impacting other supply chains.
During Nasfam’s 28th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lilongwe recently, Nasfam chief executive officer Betty Chinyamunyamu stressed the need to ensure Fisp is extended to crops that can generate forex like legumes considering that the programme consumes a lot of resources and forex.
She said: “We are not saying it is not important, we are saying it consumes a lot of resources. And it also consumes a lot of forex because as you know the fertiliser that is used in Fisp is imported.
“So, our concerns are that it uses a lot of resources such that there is not much else remaining to support other necessary interventions in agriculture like irrigation, climate resilient and market development.”
Chinyamunyamu further said it was concerning that Fisp is using foreign exchange, but it is supporting commodities that do not bring forex because the maize that is produced is consumed domestically.
In its latest research, local agriculture thinktank Mwapata Institute said the agriculture sector does not receive sufficient investments to drive economic growth, as espoused in the development plans.
It said the absolute value of expenditure in agricultural extension, irrigation, and research cannot significantly transform the agricultural sector.
