No abstract

Dietary quality has significant implications for health, nutrition and life quality. Yet, most people in developing countries, such as Malawi, consume inadequate diets due to the high cost of healthy and nutritious food. The international community has called for a radical transformation of food systems to ensure access to healthier food options at affordable prices. While the costs and affordability of healthy and nutritious diets have recently been established, little attention has been paid to the economic accessibility of basic nourishment. The most available price data (2017 to 2021) from the National Statistics Office of Malawi (NSO) were used to calculate the cost of the World Food Program’s “basic plate.” Food items were substituted to determine if local substitutes could improve the nutritional value of the plate. The plate cost was compared to the international poverty line and average food expenditure in Malawi. Slight variations in the purchase parity cost and affordability of basic meals were found between 2017 and 2021. However, the basic meal and alternative plates were not affordable to those living at or below the international poverty line over this period. A revision of the poverty line is necessary to ensure that basic nutritional needs can be met. Both revisions of the poverty line and cash-based food assistance should consider that meals using animal-sourced proteins were more expensive than plant-based protein sources, but animal-sourced proteins provide more nutrition than plant-based protein meals.

Efficient agricultural markets can be a bedrock for diverse economy-wide benefits ranging from improvements in resource use to price stabilisation. However, as is the case with most developing and agrarian countries, Malawi's agricultural markets are still developing. This is mainly the case in the country's legume markets, especially the bean marketing system. The current study assessed the market efficiency of common bean traders in Malawi using a multiple linear regression model. By focusing on the bean traders in the major markets in Malawi, the study departs from earlier research on bean marketing, which has placed greater emphasis on the farmer. The findings reveal that traders in bean markets mostly use informal sources of market information. Again, transaction costs such as transportation, storage, handling and distance to sources of bean reduce marketing efficiency. The scale of the operation portrayed a positive influence on marketing efficiency. Access to credit significantly increased marketing efficiency for both wholesalers and retailers. In addition, markets that are located in rural areas had a negative effect on marketing efficiency as compared to markets in urban areas, further agreeing with the focus of the National Agriculture Policy (NAP) to introduce structured markets in rural areas. The study recommends adjustments in policies in the NAP that would promote smooth access to reliable market information, especially in rural areas. The upgrading of the rural road system and warehousing facilities should be promoted in order to lower transaction costs. This will enable bean traders to expand their operations on a larger scale while also lowering expenses and increasing profits.