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Abstract:
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Malawi, with a population of about 10 million people, has an economy that has always depended on agriculture. Agriculture accounts for 85 percent of employment for the total rural population. 35 percent of GDP. 80 percent of the labour force, and 90 percent of foreign exchange earnings. Although Malawi’s economy depends on agriculture, there is a serious problem of food insecurity compared to Asian countries where not long ago, most countries were regarded as hopeless cases, where in the race between population and food resources, the Malthusian theory was applicable and the population appeared to be outgrowing resources. After independence in 1964. Malawi was able to achieve an impressive growth for the first 15 years. However, Malawi experienced a number of shocks in the late 1970s as a result of such factors as the oil shock of 1973 and the civil war in neighbouring Mozambique. Tlie.se factors exposed structural weaknesses in the economy and in response, from 1981. Malawi has been implementing a broad program of macro economic adjustment and structural policy reforms supported by the World Bank. IMF, and other multilateral and bilateral agencies. These reforms have also affected and impacted on the country's agricultural sector. Against this background, this paper aims to analyze the agricultural intensification process in Malawi by looking at the preconditions, actors and the effects of the process. The paper has been guided by the following research questions:
a) Has intensification of staple food production taken place? If so, since when (Is there any important temporal break point)?
b) (When) has there been an 'objective' need for intensification of staple food crop production (e.g. food gap, land frontier, man-land ratio, etc.) in Malawi? Has the state interpreted the need for food self-sufficiency?
c) Which has been the most important precondition (driving force) for explaining the coming about of intensification of food production in Malawi?
d) Which is the most important explanation for the documented macro-level outcome of the process studied (aggregated effects)?
e) Which actors) - state/market/peasants - has been the most important contributor to documented intensification of food production?
f) How facilitating or constraining has state interv ention been?
g) Has the state induced/stimulated the development of market actors (private entrepreneurs. NGOs. CBOs. etc.) in agriculture and/or agriculture-related activities/niches?
h) What is/has been the State's policy towards family based/small-scale/large scale agriculture?
i) Did nationalism play a role in the actions taken by the state?
j) Has. during the period studied. Asia figured as a model for any actors involved?
k) Is it relevant to talk about a post-SAP period, and in what sense does it differ from the pre-SAPand SAP periods? |