IFPRI Malawi is pleased to announce the publication of a "Key Facts Sheet: Agriculture and Food Security." This is the first in a series of Key Facts sheets that IFPRI will be producing based on the third and fourth Integrated Household Surveys (IHS). The purpose of the series is to present data relevant to key policy issues on agriculture, food systems, and development topics in Malawi. Other Key Facts sheets will be produced in the near future.
Highlights from this Key Fact Sheet include:
- The percentage of households cultivating crops in the rainy and dry seasons and rearing livestock decreased between the 2010/11 and 2015/16 agricultural years, but there was a slight increase in fisheries involvement.
- Median land area cultivated per agricultural household remains small and declined between the IHS3 (0.57 hectares) and IHS4 (0.45 hectares).
- While over two-thirds of maize plots used some inorganic fertilizer (68%), no fertilizer was applied on nearly a quarter of maize plots (22%).
- A dramatic decline in household food security status occurred between 2010/11 and 2016/17: the number of households defined as having “very low food security” increased from 32% to 61%.
Download the full "Key Facts Sheet: Agriculture and Food Security" here (718 KB).
