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

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high population growth (about 2.4 percent in 1999), declining per capita landholding size 2 , low agricultural productivity, declining soil fertility, and widespread rural and urban poverty suggest that these issues will remain a priority in the near future. Anecdotal evidence also suggests that female-headed households remain poorer than male-headed households; a reflection of their limited access to land, tighter labor constraints, and fewer productive assets. Starting in 1995-96, concerns about declining agricultural productivity and food security prompted several donors to launch programs to stimulate input use. The Drought Recovery Inputs Program (1995/96) distributed free inputs mainly to smallholders hit by the drought in 1994-95. The Agricultural Productivity Investment Project (APIP) provided input on interest-free credit. The Starter Pack Scheme (SPS) distributed small amounts of free fertilizers and seeds to all smallholders to use on about 0.10 ha of land. Supported by donor organizations, the government has also been pursuing an agricultural production diversification strategy. The diversification strategy, the APIP and the SPS are briefly discussed below. Diversification Over the last few years, there has been an increasing emphasis on agricultural diversification in the small-holder sector of Malawi. In the food sector, this has entailed a shift from traditionally dominant crops such as maize to other crops such as cassava, pulses, groundnuts, and potatoes. Following the severe 1993/1994 drought in Malawi, the diversification campaign has focused especially on cassava because of its resistance to drought. Area allocated to cassava has increased from about 72 thousand ha in 1990/91 to about 166 thousand ha in 2000. Within the cash crop sector, fear of declining world demand for tobacco has encouraged small farmer groups to increase production of other cash crops such as cotton, coffee, chillies, soybeans, and nuts. Despite this progress, diversification away from maize and tobacco is still slow. The dependency on maize is associated with the taste preferences of the Malawian population and the deep-rooted traditional belief that maize production is synonymous with food security. This is exacerbated by the lack of developed markets in certain areas which forces most smallholders to rely mainly on food crop production as a means of sustenance. Relying on markets to sell their cash crops or buy their food crops is still considered a risky activity since in many rural areas of Malawi access to well-functioning agricultural markets is not a given. Moving away from tobacco into other export 2 Malawi has one of the highest population densities in Africa and practically, almost all her arable land is under cultivation. 27
crops is also difficult because tobacco is a historic crop that has developed well established markets and institutions in Malawi. Expanding new export markets for crops such as paprika will take more time to achieve. Agricultural Productivity Investment Project (APIP) The continuous devaluation of the Malawi currency, rising inflation, and the removal of agricultural inputs and food subsidies in 1994/95 were viewed as having had adverse impacts on agricultural production costs, fertilizer use, and food security for the poor. In order to promote smallholder productivity, halt the declining soil fertility in the country, and promote food security, the government, through donor assistance from the European Union, adopted the Agricultural Productivity Investment Project (APIP). A pilot phase was started in 1997/98, where about 15,000 mt of fertilizer were distributed to 150,000 credit-worthy farmers. The credit package (made up of 50 kg of urea, 50 kg of NPK, and 20 kg of hybrid maize), was interest free . Farmers were supposed to pay back the amount of the loan at the end of July of the year following the receipt of the credit package. Farmers could repay in cash or in kind. The program was repeated again in 1998/99 and 1999/2000, but only farmers who had not defaulted on their loans during the previous year were eligible for the continued assistance. Starter Pack Scheme (SPS) The SPS is a scheme funded jointly by the Malawi government, the Department for International Development (DFID), the European Commission (EU), and the World Bank. The SPS was primarily envisaged as a short term action to help small-scale farmers improve their agricultural productivity and food security. The scheme was initiated during the 1998/99 season and about 2.8 million starter packs were distributed to all smallholder farm families country-wide. The free input packs included fertilizer (about 10 kg of urea or NPK) and seeds (about 2.5 kgs of maize and legumes) for 0.1 hectare per household. While the Malawi Government was responsible for the purchase of all the fertilizer in the program, the donors were responsible for the purchase of all the seeds. The Starter Pack Scheme was repeated during the 1999/2000 season. General Observations on the Interventions The SPS and the APIP have been associated with bumper crops amongst the majority of the smallholder farmers in 1999 and 2000. However, the sustainability of these programs is 28
Page 1 and 2: IMPACT OF AGRICULTURAL MARKET REFOR
Page 4 and 5: TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 - INTRO
Page 6 and 7: 5.1.10 Expenditure patterns .......
Page 8 and 9: CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION 1.1 Backgr
Page 10 and 11: villageois, (GV)) was needed as the
Page 12 and 13: CHAPTER 2: POLICY BACKGROUND FOR BE
Page 14 and 15: 2.3 Evolution of Economic Policy 2.
Page 16 and 17: Under pressure from the World Bank
Page 18 and 19: anking system has been restored to
Page 20 and 21: Fertilizer can be imported outside
Page 22 and 23: particularly urban wage-earners. On
Page 24 and 25: Soulé (1996) describes the evoluti
Page 26 and 27: led to a more sustainable agricultu
Page 28: Table 2.4 - Gross farm revenue from
Page 31 and 32: Malawi’s economy is heavily depen
Page 33: the reduction of its operations in
Page 37 and 38: Table 3.1 CROP 1982/83 1983/84 1984
Page 40 and 41: CHAPTER 4: RESULTS OF THE BÉNIN SM
Page 42 and 43: where W v is the weight for a house
Page 44 and 45: heads. This suggests that some of t
Page 46 and 47: And school attendance is much highe
Page 48 and 49: Crop production is the main activit
Page 50 and 51: (33 percent). Livestock income is m
Page 52 and 53: Somewhat surprisingly, the relation
Page 54 and 55: It is no more common among richer h
Page 56 and 57: production, and women actually spen
Page 58 and 59: Seed use by crop Although only 18 p
Page 60 and 61: Looking at the results by departmen
Page 62 and 63: Ouémé presents an unusual case: j
Page 64 and 65: Market prices have significant effe
Page 66 and 67: policies of SONAPRA to discourage
Page 68 and 69: crops are responsible for this incr
Page 70 and 71: Respondents were asked whether the
Page 72 and 73: Female-headed households, not surpr
Page 74 and 75: households are not considered credi
Page 76 and 77: In almost every category of agricul
Page 78 and 79: This discussion implies that farms
Page 80 and 81: eturns per hectare and labor-intens
Page 82 and 83: farm household and tends to be smal
Page 84 and 85:
Surprisingly, the value of sales as
Page 86 and 87:
Finally, proximity to an all-season
Page 88 and 89:
Changes in crop marketing In this s
Page 90 and 91:
Poor households are more likely to
Page 92 and 93:
it is clear that virtually all grow
Page 94 and 95:
production to total expenditure is
Page 96 and 97:
a significant number of household (
Page 98 and 99:
non-food spending. These are follow
Page 100 and 101:
Larger farms are associated with hi
Page 102 and 103:
This would not be surprising in lig
Page 104 and 105:
Female-headed households appear to
Page 106 and 107:
poorest expenditure category to jus
Page 108 and 109:
headed household were more likely t
Page 110 and 111:
Households in every expenditure cat
Page 112 and 113:
An important result of this analysi
Page 114 and 115:
oad network, although those citing
Page 116 and 117:
questions posed by the IFPRI-LARES
Page 118 and 119:
With regard to cotton marketing, al
Page 120 and 121:
Village leaders were asked to ident
Page 122 and 123:
Marketing patterns Village leaders
Page 124 and 125:
4.3: Results of the Bénin Survey o
Page 126 and 127:
4.3.2 Survey methods At the time of
Page 128 and 129:
officers have CM2 certificates. Thi
Page 130 and 131:
Suppliers The GV representatives we
Page 132 and 133:
Cotton area per GV ranges from 145
Page 134 and 135:
The largest cost items are schools
Page 136 and 137:
members and 10 percent of the membe
Page 138 and 139:
Table 4.1.1-Description of sample o
Page 140 and 141:
Table 4.1.7-Age, education, and lit
Page 142 and 143:
Table 4.1.13-Ethnic background of h
Page 144 and 145:
Table 4.1.19-Importance of each sou
Page 146 and 147:
Table 4.1.25-Number of plots and ar
Page 148 and 149:
Table 4.1.31-Land tenure by expendi
Page 150 and 151:
Table 4.1.37-Change in labor alloca
Page 152 and 153:
Table 4.1.42-Seed use by sex of hea
Page 154 and 155:
Table 4.1.47-Perceived change in av
Page 156 and 157:
Table 4.1.54-Share of producers of
Page 158 and 159:
Table 4.1.59-Fertilizer use by farm
Page 160 and 161:
Table 4.1.64-Characteristics of fer
Page 162 and 163:
Table 4.1.69-Change in fertilizer a
Page 164 and 165:
Table 4.1.75-Allocation of labor by
Page 166 and 167:
Table 4.1.82-Allocation of labor by
Page 168 and 169:
Table 4.1.89-Change in credit avail
Page 170 and 171:
Table 4.1.94-Percent of households
Page 172 and 173:
Page 174 and 175:
Table 4.1.102-Area allocation by cr
Page 176 and 177:
Table 4.1.106-Area allocation by cr
Page 178 and 179:
Table 4.1.110-Marketed share of out
Page 180 and 181:
Table 4.1.114-Marketed share of out
Page 182 and 183:
Table 4.1.117-Regression for market
Page 184 and 185:
Table 4.1.120-Change in the type of
Page 186 and 187:
Table 4.1.128-Perceived change in r
Page 188 and 189:
Table 4.1.135-Main reason for stori
Page 190 and 191:
Table 4.1.140-Summary of food expen
Page 192 and 193:
Page 194 and 195:
Table 4.1.144-Food consumption by e
Page 196 and 197:
Table 4.1.149-Results of regression
Page 198 and 199:
Table 4.1.152-Value of household as
Page 200 and 201:
Table 4.1.156-Value of household as
Page 202 and 203:
Table 4.1.160-Housing characteristi
Page 204 and 205:
Table 4.1.162-Housing characteristi
Page 206 and 207:
Table 4.1.165-Main source of water
Page 208 and 209:
Table 4.1.170-Source of information
Page 210 and 211:
Table 4.1.176-Source of information
Page 212 and 213:
Table 4.1.181-Regression for percei
Page 214 and 215:
Table 4.2.5-Change in number of veh
Page 216 and 217:
Table 4.2.12-Availability and sourc
Page 218 and 219:
Table 4.2.21-Number of GFs per vill
Page 220 and 221:
Table 4.2.30-Percentage of villages
Page 222 and 223:
Table 4.2.34-Distribution of villag
Page 224 and 225:
Table 4.3.1-Distribution of GVs by
Page 226 and 227:
Table 4.3.9-Number of each type of
Page 228 and 229:
Table 4.3.12-Percentage of secretar
Page 230 and 231:
Table 4.3.19-Distribution of GVs by
Page 232 and 233:
Table 4.3.24-Percentage of inputs s
Page 234 and 235:
Table 4.3.32-Average value of curre
Page 236 and 237:
Table 4.3.40-Percentage of GVs in w
Page 238 and 239:
CHAPTER 5 - RESULTS FROM THE MALAWI
Page 240 and 241:
The weights are used to calculate a
Page 242 and 243:
On average, around 20 percent of th
Page 244 and 245:
agricultural work. Other less commo
Page 246 and 247:
5.1.4 Time allocation In Malawi, as
Page 248 and 249:
attributed it to the fact that fert
Page 250 and 251:
insignificant. The coefficient on t
Page 252 and 253:
As in the results from the previous
Page 254 and 255:
most important sources of input on
Page 256 and 257:
applied for credit compared to 20 p
Page 258 and 259:
less than 1 mt per ha which are fai
Page 260 and 261:
5.1.9 Agricultural marketing Market
Page 262 and 263:
Households that belong to a club al
Page 264 and 265:
most important contractors are the
Page 266 and 267:
indicates that the extent of povert
Page 268 and 269:
wheat, and fruits and nuts, a highe
Page 270 and 271:
Surprisingly, the education of the
Page 272 and 273:
Housing characteristics The overwhe
Page 274 and 275:
It was also important to find out w
Page 276 and 277:
Surprisingly, tobacco growers are m
Page 278 and 279:
Over three-quarter of the EPAs repo
Page 280 and 281:
The changes in the number and types
Page 282 and 283:
5.2.11 Storage Facilities On averag
Page 284 and 285:
Table 5.2 - Household characteristi
Page 286 and 287:
Table 5.7 - Percentage of household
Page 288 and 289:
Table 5.12 - Farm labor use and all
Page 290 and 291:
Table 5.15 - Determinants of the de
Page 292 and 293:
Table 5.17 - Sources of fertilizer
Page 294 and 295:
Table 5.22 - Access and use of cred
Page 296 and 297:
Table 5.25 - Percent of households
Page 298 and 299:
Page 300 and 301:
Table 5.34 - Crop disposal by type
Page 302 and 303:
Table 5.38 - Determinants of Market
Page 304 and 305:
Table 5.42 - Summary of expenditure
Page 306 and 307:
Table 5.45 - Food consumption by so
Page 308 and 309:
Page 310 and 311:
Page 312 and 313:
Table 5.51 - Food consumption by ex
Page 314 and 315:
Table 5.56 - Determinants of per ca
Page 316 and 317:
Table 5.59 Percent of households ow
Page 318 and 319:
Table 5.62 - Characteristics of the
Page 320 and 321:
Table 5.68 - Determinants of percei
Page 322 and 323:
Table 5.71 - Average yields per cro
Page 324 and 325:
Table 5.77 - Changes in the availab
Page 326 and 327:
Figure 5.1 Distribution of househol
Page 328 and 329:
Figure 5.7 - Percentage of Househol
Page 330 and 331:
CHAPTER 6 - SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AN
Page 332 and 333:
Fertilizer Half of the far
Page 334 and 335:
Regression analysis indicates that
Page 336 and 337:
Among those seeing improvement, the
Page 338 and 339:
Agricultural markets Three quart
Page 340 and 341:
The economic reforms have boosted p
Page 342 and 343:
department. The farms with very lit
Page 344 and 345:
Strengthen the extension service by
Page 346 and 347:
The most time-consuming agricultura
Page 348 and 349:
Most common means of transport to t
Page 350 and 351:
Small farmers in Malawi are mainly
Page 352 and 353:
households have less assets and les
Page 354 and 355:
Place more serious efforts to impro
Page 356 and 357:
REFERENCES Ahoyo Adjovi, N.R. and F
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