Impact Of Agricultural Market Reforms On Smallholder Farmers In ...

consuming family labor activities for all types of family labor are land preparation (one-third of
total family labor), weeding (29 percent) and harvesting (19 percent).
Table 5.13 disaggregates total family labor by crop. The most labor-intensive crops are tobacco,
followed by cotton, maize, and rice. In general, although females work more days in total, as a
proportion of their own total labor days, males tend to spend more time on cash crops (such as
tobacco and cotton), while females devote more time to food crops such as maize, cassava, beans,
sorghum, etc.
Fertilizer use
An important question that has emerged following the reforms relates to the impact of
input market liberalization on the use of fertilizer by smallholder farmers. Because all fertilizers
in Malawi are imported, fertilizer prices are highly sensitive to devaluation. As mentioned in
Chapter 3, the Malawian Kwacha (MK) was devalued several times since 1994, increasing from
about 9 MK/US$ to the dollar in 1994 to 45 MK/US$ in 1999. Similarly, the average price of a
50 Kg bag of NPK or urea increased from about 100 MK per 1994-95 to about 800 to 900 MK in
1998-99. Since the consumer price index rose by a factor of 3.5 over this period, the real price of
fertilizer more than doubled. The impact of the higher fertilizer price is exacerbated by the fact
that most fertilizer is used on maize, whose relative price (as a non-tradable) falls with
devaluation. The fertilizer/maize price ratio has, on average, increased since 1994 and remains
above the level of the 1980s. As a result, total fertilizer use has declined from its peak in 1992-93
at 74 thousand mt of nutrients to less than 50 thousand mt in 1994 and 1995. Fertilizer use picked
up again in 1996, 1997 and 1998, partially due to the free input programs. Total fertilizer use,
however, is still lower than in the early 1990s.
Approximately 23 percent of the cropped area in Malawi is fertilized. The use of fertilizer varies
with the type of crop planted. For example, 61 percent of the tobacco area is fertilized, compared
to 27 percent for maize and 24 percent for vegetables. Given the large area devoted to maize,
however, 63 percent of the fertilizer used is applied to maize. Cassava and sweet potatoes are
generally not fertilized. The IFPRI/APRU Smallholder Farmer survey results indicate that
manure is used by 23 percent of the farmers (mainly from their own animals) while about 35
percent of the farmers use fertilizers. For farmers that did not use any fertilizer, about 44 percent
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