Promoting Participation in Oilseed Value Chains in Malawi - Who and where to target
IFPRI Malawi Strategy Support Program Policy Note 39
By Todd Benson
October 2020
By increasing their production for the market and realizing greater incomes, smallholder farming households can significantly accelerate local agricultural and rural economic development. The increased income of these commercially oriented farmers increases their demand for the goods, services, and labor that can be supplied by other, often poorer, households in their community, expanding local non-farm employment opportunities and raising incomes for those other households. Appropriately targeting agricultural development efforts towards commercially oriented farming households has important second-round economic development benefits in their communities, effects which cannot be achieved without properly identifying such households.
In a new Policy Note, Todd Benson examines both household and spatial factors that may drive participation by smallholder farming households in oilseed value chains, focusing on those for groundnut, soyabean, and sunflower.
After considering the agro-ecological suitability of different areas in Malawi for production of oilseeds, two sets of analyses are done using nationally representative household-level data from the fourth Malawi Integrated Household Survey (IHS4) of 2016/17. First, the study develops a four-category economic typology of Malawian households based on survey information on their economic engagement and level of crop sales. A descriptive table is used to explore the propensity of households in each category to produce oilseed crops, to sell any of their production, and, if they sold any, the share of production sold. The author then examines in a multivariate context the same facets of household participation in oilseed value chains.
These analyses generate evidence on where and which farming households might grow oilseed crops across Malawi. Government and other agricultural stakeholders can use this information to identify and foster the participation of smallholders in these value chains either through direct support to households most likely to engage in their commercial production or through targeted investments in the specific crop value chains.
Read and download the Policy Note here. (PDF 756 KB)
Please click here to download and read our IFPRI Malawi Policy Note 40: Promoting Participation in Value Chains for Pulses in Malawi, published in November 2020.
Featured Image: Farmers in groundnut field. Photo credit: IITA.
