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

The most time-consuming agricultural activities are land preparation (one-third of total family
labor), followed by weeding (29 percent), and harvesting (19 percent).
The most-labor intensive crops are tobacco, followed by cotton, maize and rice.
Fertilizer use
Only about 35 percent of the households use fertilizers. The main reasons for non-use are high
costs and the feeling that fertilizer is not needed.
Most of the fertilizer purchased is used either on maize or tobacco, but given the large area
devoted to maize, about 61 percent of the tobacco area is fertilized compared to 27 percent of the
maize area.
Tobacco farmers are three times as likely to use fertilizer on maize than non-tobacco farmers.
Holding everything else constant, the probability of using fertilizer increases with household
expenditure, education level of the household head, membership in a club or
cooperative/association, plot size, the maize price, the use of purchased seeds, and if the
household is in the Northern region.
Seed use
Most households use their own seeds, only about half use hybrid seeds and around 40 percent
purchase local seeds.
Use of hybrid seeds increases with expenditures levels, farm size, in male-headed households and
in the Northern region.
Input Purchases
The most important source of inputs is ADMARC, followed by other farmers, private traders, and
private companies.
About 90 percent of input purchases are cash-based; use of input on credit is limited. The Malawi
Rural Finance Corporation (MRFC) is the most important supplier of input on credit.
Only 16-18 of the farmers reported that their use of purchased seeds and fertilizer had decreased
since 1995.
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