The Quiet Rise of Medium-Scale Farms in Malawi

Abstract

Medium-scale farms have become a major force in Malawi's agricultural sector. Malawi's most recent official agricultural survey indicates that these account for over a quarter of all land under cultivation in Malawi. This study explores the causes and multifaceted consequences of the rising importance of medium-scale farms in Malawi. We identify the characteristics and pathways of entry into farming based on surveys of 300 medium-scale farmers undertaken in 2014 in the districts of Mchinji, Kasungu and Lilongwe. The area of land acquired by medium-scale farmers in these three districts is found to have almost doubled between 2000 and 2015. Just over half of the medium-scale farmers represent cases of successful expansion out of small-scale farming status; the other significant proportion of medium-scale farmers are found to be urban-based professionals, entrepreneurs and/or civil servants who acquired land, some very recently, and started farming in mid-life. We also find that a significant portion of the land acquired by medium-scale farmers was utilized by others prior to acquisition, that most of the acquired land was under customary tenure, and that the current owners were often successful in transferring the ownership structure of the acquired land to a long-term leaseholding with a title deed. The study finds that, instead of just strong endogenous growth of small-scale famers as a route for the emergence of medium-scale farms, significant farm consolidation is occurring through land acquisitions, often by urban-based people. The effects of farmland acquisitions by domestic investors on the country's primary development goals, such as food security, poverty reduction and employment, are not yet clear, though some trends appear to be emerging. We consider future research questions that may more fully shed light on the implications of policies that would continue to promote land acquisitions by medium-scale farms.

IFAD RESEARCH SERIES 53 Youth Access to Land, Migration and Employment Opportunities: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa Papers of the 2019 Rural Development Report

“…Sitko and Chamberlin (2016) report that the share of Zambia's land under customary tenure has declined from 94 per cent at independence to at most 54 per cent in 2015. Malawi has experienced similar declines, from 87 per cent at independence to an estimated 60 per cent in 2016 (Anseeuw et al, 2016). To the extent that a willingness to pay mode of land acquisition becomes widespread, the prospects of current and future generations of rural youth, born in customary tenure areas to access land through inheritance, will diminish.…”

Introduction: The Continued Importance of Smallholders Today

“…Last, development economist Ward Anseeuw and colleagues [66] explore the discourse surrounding the seeming transformation of smallholder farmers into medium-scale farmers in Malawi. Surveys, however, reveal that just less than half of the medium-scale farmers are actually urban-based professionals.…”

Regard sur le modèle agricole sénégalais : pratiques foncières et particularités territoriales des moyennes et grandes exploitations agricoles

“…L'étude de terrain réalisée au Sénégal se base sur les cadres conceptuels développés par Anseeuw et al (2016) et Jayne et al (2016), associant l'analyse des modèles d'accumulation de terres et des trajectoires agricoles pour l'étude socio-économique des exploitations agricoles de taille moyenne. Pour examiner les potentielles stratégies d'accumulation et identifier les trajectoires agricoles, nous avons combiné l'analyse des modalités d'accès et d'usage des terres agricoles avec l'identification des pratiques des exploitations agricoles familiales, organisations socio-économiques de base (Benoit-Cattin, 2007).…”

“…En effet, les exploitations utilisent principalement une main-d'oeuvre familiale, appuyée par des employés temporaires. À la différence de ce qui est démontré dans d'autres études (Sitko et Jayne, 2014 ;Anseeuw et al, 2016 ;Jayne et al, 2016), l'augmentation des superficies cultivées ne s'accompagne pas d'un recours accru à une maind'oeuvre non familiale à temps plein (Tab. 3, main-d'oeuvre par hectare).…”