The state of Malawi’s poor: agriculture and making a living from the land

Briefing on agriculture/poverty linkages found by analysis of the Malawi Intergrated Household SurveyFindings include: Cropping patterns do not differ greatly between poor and non-poor. Regional differences in crop mix are more significantThe non-poor are less likely to have cropland, but if they do, they have larger holdings.Cash cropping is done by boththe poor and non-poor. However, non-poor derive greaterbenefits from the effortLivestock ownership is lowoverall, except for poultry. Only cattle ownership showsa strong poor/non-poor contrast.Given the overwhelming role of agri-culture in Malawi - for the poor and non-poor alike - productivity increases in the agriculture sector should be one of the main engines of growth in the country.The poor are doubly-burdened in agriculture: Not only do they operate extremely small farms, they are also unable to take advantage of superior agricultural technology. That this is especially so in the production of maize, the main staple, provides reasons for additional concern. Removing the impediments to higher yields which poor farmers face involves considerable investments in land im-provement. These are feasible only in the medium to long term, but a realistic policy framework must recognize this fact and act upon it immediately. Delays in implementing long-term investment projects will accentuate future problems. This does not mean that short-term policies do not have a place in Malawian agriculture. In fact, given current levels of poverty, short-term investments in seeds and fertilizer that wrest out even relatively marginal gains in productivity will have important effects on poverty reduction in Malawi. A very careful balance between long-term and short-term investments in agriculture is needed.The livestock sector in Malawi, in particular, is considerably underdeveloped. Efforts that look into ways of profitably integrating livestock production with crop production should be pursued.Both short-term and long-term gains can be realized from efforts aimed at im-proving marketing of inputs and outputs, not just for cash crops like tobacco, but also for food crops like maize. Progress here hinges on the development of basic physical infrastructure such as roads. However there remains considerable scope for shorter-term policies that foster competition among market intermediaries in order to provide better prices and choices to Malawian farmers. which poor and non-poor households derive from to-bacco are very different. The difference in mean sales between non-poor and poor households who grow tobacco is about MK 3,000. Clearly the ability of members of the two wealth groups to profit from the crop differs for rea-sons which might variously include access to credit facili-ties, to the auction floors, or to information on improved production methods. [author]