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

indicates that the extent of poverty in Malawi is such that more than 60 percent of the population
still spends more than 70 percent of their budget on food. In the poorest four expenditure
categories, home produced food constitutes 34 percent of total expenditures, while in the highest
expenditure category it accounts for 23 percent.
The relationship between farm size and expenditure patterns shows similar trends as for
expenditure groups. Household expenditure rises steadily across farm-size categories, from 9.9
thousand MK in the smallest 20 percent of farms to 23.4 thousand MK among the largest 20
percent of farms. Per capita expenditure also increases with farm-size, but not as much (2.6
thousand MK for the smallest farms to 4.1 thousand MK for the largest ones). The food shares
are also relatively constant across farm size groups. The farmers in the first four farm size groups
spend about 70 of their expenditures on food. Only the last group with the largest farm size
spend about 61 percent of their expenditures on food. The contribution of home production, on
the other hand does not show a clear pattern across farm size groups (see Table 5.43).
Food expenditure
The results of the IFPRI-APRU Small Farmer Survey indicate that, in terms of value,
maize is by far the most important food item, accounting for 32 percent of the food budget of the
average farm household. Maize is followed by fish (representing 8 percent of the food budget),
eggs (7 percent), and leafy vegetables (6 percent). It is interesting to note that the second and
third largest items in the food budget are not basic staple foods. Beans/Pulses, groundnuts,
potatoes, rice, and tomatoes each represent 4-5 percent of the food budget, while cassava, wheat
products, sorghum, onions, cooking oil, and coffee/tea account each for 1-2 percent (see Table
5.44).
Another measure of the importance of a food item is the proportion of households that consume
it. The most widely consumed food items are maize (consumed by 99 percent of the households),
fish (93 percent), tomatoes (92 percent), sugar (86 percent), chicken (84 percent), leafy
vegetables (83 percent), beans/pulses (83 percent), and groundnuts (81 percent). Other foods
consumed by at least two-thirds of the households include potatoes, cassava, eggs, beef, and
cooking oil. Less widely consumed items are sorghum, wheat products, fruits and nuts, other
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