Can a maize price band work in Malawi?

For many years, Malawi has attempted to stabilize the price of maize, its main staple crop. Maize prices are expected to vary between the minimum farmgate price set by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MoAFS) at the beginning of each cropping season and the Agricultural Marketing and Development Corporation's (ADMARC) sales price to consumers later in the season. But has this system been successful?

A recent policy note investigates if a maize price band can work in Malawi. The analysis found that over the last 12 years, government intervention has usually been unable to lift estimated farmgate maize prices above the floor set by minimum farmgate prices, while the ADMARC sales price has not acted as a ceiling price for maize consumers. Furthermore, the authors found that very substantial public purchases and sales of maize are required to defend floor and ceiling prices, and that the intervention frequency varies with the width of the price band and its height relative to market prices This poses serious budgetary and logistic challenges. Lastly, the authors found that greater attention needs to be paid to the timing of maize market interventions by ADMARC and the National Food Reserve Agency. Price volatility operational challenges and high budgetary costs make it very difficult for Malawi to stabilize either farmgate or retail maize prices.

To read and download the policy note, please visit our website.

Each year in April, MoAFS announces minimum farmgate prices for several commodities to ensure favorable prices for farmers. But are farmers receiving these prices?

In August 2020, we published a project note analysing the prices received by 1,048 maize and 1,265 soybean farmers in Malawi during the main harvest marketing season of 2020. Between April and July, whenever farmers sold maize or soybeans, they were asked to report the prices they received by calling or texting a toll-free number managed by Farm Radio Trust. Reported prices were then compared to the minimum farmgate prices set by MoAFS. The research findings show that 76 percent of maize farmers and 90 percent of soybean farmers sold their crops below the official minimum farmgate prices. On average, prices received by these farmers were approximately three-quarters of the official minimum farmgate prices. 

Download and read the project note here.

The Tonse Alliance Government has committed to implementing a reform of agricultural subsidies in Malawi. The reform, the Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP), which will cost MWK 160.2 billion (about USD 214 million), aims to: (1) reduce poverty and (2) ensure food security at household and national levels. These goals are similar to those of the now defunct Farm Input Subsidy Program. With many uncertainties about the design, financing, and implementation of the AIP, IFPRI’s Research Analysts Edwin Kenamu and Jack Thunde suggest several ways to help the AIP accomplish its goals.

Read the op-ed here.

Since 2013, IFPRI Malawi has partnered with the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) to offer mentorship and capacity building to promising young master’s students at its Bunda campus. Funded by USAID, this program is called the Bunda Grant Scheme (BGS). IFPRI researchers have been providing technical advice and feedback to selected master’s students from the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics on their thesis research. Students may also submit their papers for publication in IFPRI Malawi’s Working Paper series. To date, 12 students from five cohorts have published in the series. Two of them, the subjects of our blog series “IFPRI mentorship journeys”, have also published their papers in reputable academic journals.

In our first post “Providing advice and research support for Malawi agriculture students” we dive into the mentorship journey of Joanna Chilemba and her IFPRI mentor Catherine Ragasa. 

In December 2019, IFPRI Malawi published a Working Paper assessing the dietary patterns of Malawian households and their consumption of selected nutrients. Written by Rachel Gilbert, Todd Benson, and Olivier Ecker, the working paper analyzed data from the third (2010/11) and fourth (2016/17) rounds of the Malawi Integrated Household Survey (IHS). This was followed by a poster on nutrient consumption and dietary patterns in Malawi in January 2020.

To allow other researchers to replicate or extend the analyses on nutrient consumption, we decided to make the underlying data files, which were constructed from the IHS3 and IHS4 datasets, available online. The dataset "Estimates of Nutrient Availability From the Integrated Household Surveys in Malawi" is now available on Harvard Dataverse.

We are pleased to announce the start of two new research projects.

Funded by the Government of Flanders, the first project concerns extension services, cooperatives and markets and will develop policy recommendations to enhance their performance and inclusiveness in Malawi. The project builds on research results of the Pluralistic Agricultural Extension Project and will run until mid-2023.

In a second project, IFPRI is examining the gap between awareness and adoption of agricultural technologies by small farmers, and how risk influences farmers’ cropping decisions and adoption of agriculture technologies and practices. This work is part of the European Union funded “Development Smart Innovation through Research in Agriculture” (DeSIRA) initiative. In this project the Department of Agricultural Research Services (DARS), the eight CGIAR centers working in Malawi, and two EU based research institutions will develop and disseminate integrated technologies, appropriate for the agri-food systems in Malawi. The project will be implemented until mid-2024.

Please stay tuned for regular research updates on our website.

IFPRI hosts many events around the world. Below is a selection of virtual events from the last quarter.

IFPRI event, July 8, 2020

Transforming Food Systems for Affordable, Healthy and Sustainable Diets for All: A High-Level Discussion on the Key Findings of the 2020 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World Report

July 14, 2020 - IFPRI event co-organized by FAO North America and IFPRI

The European Green Deal: The Force of the EU's Farm to Fork Strategy and Biodiversity Strategy to Build Healthy and Sustainable Food Systems

July 23, 2020 - IFPRI event co-organized by European Commission and IFPRI.

Phase two of the COVID-19 pandemic and response: What can we learn from China?

IFPRI event, July 28, 2020

Book Launch - COVID-19 & Global Food Security

IFPRI event, August 4, 2020

COVID-19’s Short-term Impacts on Economies, Food Systems and Poverty in African and Asian Countries: Economywide Estimates from Economywide Models

August 11, 2020 - Co-organized by IFPRI and the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)

COVID-19: The role of the agriculture-ecosystem health interface

IFPRI policy seminar, August 18, 2020

Virtual Book Launch - Agricultural Extension: Global Status and Performance in Selected Countries

September 10, 2020 - Co-Organized by IFPRI and the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)

COVID-19, global markets and African agricultural trade: Impacts on growth and food security

September 17, 2020 - Organized by IFPRI, with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

Virtual Event - Ethiopia’s agri-food system: Past trends, present challenges, and future scenarios

September 22, 2020
 

Visit our events page to stay updated for latest information on virtual seminars.

IFPRI Director General Johan Swinnen received the 2019 Best Book Award by the European Association of Agricultural Economists for his book The Political Economy of Agricultural and Food Policies. The book documents major changes and variations in agricultural and food policies and describes how institutions, as well as economic and political forces, shape policies. Read More

A Guide to COVID-19 Research

COVID-19 Policy Response Portal

COVID-19 Food Trade Policy Tracker (Dataset)

CGIAR’s Response to COVID-19

IFPRI Resources and Analyses on COVID-19