The impact of responding to the actual constraints expressed by farmers’ experience from the Malawian inputs subsidy initiative
Abstract
105 words
Rather than continue with the promotion of an agricultural
strategy developed independently of the smallholder community
the Government of Malawi has responded to the urgent demand
from farmers for access to fertiliser to counteract the soil
depletion which they see as their dominant constraint. A large
section of the smallholder community in Malawi cannot afford
intensifying inputs at commercial prices and so the Government
subsidised them to a level affordable by a majority of farmers.
A strategy was developed to provide redeemable coupons to
60% of smallholders. The result has been a sharp increase in
grain production and a corresponding decline in household food
insecurity.
Subjects
3 categoriesRelated papers
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