Working Paper No. 13. Seeds and Subsidies: The Political Economy of Input Programmes in Malawi

By B. Chinsinga. 2011

110 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This article provides a critical account of the cereal seed systems in Malawi, in both a historical and contemporary context, with particular reference to the three input support programmes implemented since the late 1990s to date. The centrality of the question of food security in the country's electoral politics in a post‐liberalisation context has created a seed industry dominated by multinational seed companies, who offer farmers a narrow range of products, mainly hybrid maize, and in which alternative cereal seed systems, such as millet and sorghum are at the verge of extinction. The interests of seed companies, donors and government have, for different reasons, thus coincided to create a seed industry which has a narrow product portfolio and distributes benefits to only a very small proportion of the population. The dominant players in Malawi's ‘Green Revolution Alliance’ shape the major policy directions, not always for the benefit of smallholder farmers.

Subfields: General Agricultural and Biological Sciences

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b97cc6311b0dd4a039ae902d539089d028a21c36

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In General Agricultural and Biological Sciences

Citations in the corpus

The State of Family Farms in the World (2016, background): “This program has continued with varying numbers of recipients each year, but became highly politicized, used by the government to build political support, while suppressing dissent on agricultural policies (Chinsinga, 2011).”
The Drivers of Maize Area Expansion in Sub-Saharan Africa. How Policies to Boost Maize Production Overlook the Interests of Smallholder Farmers (2020, unknown): “While there is evidence that they can raise productivity, they are often untargeted and do not usually reach poor farmers and input subsidies are highly political: farmers appreciate free inputs and politicians gain votes through this type of visible measures [58,63,64].”
Integrated Seed Sector Development in Africa: A Basis for Seed Policy and Law (2013, methodology): “● Malawi sold its public seed production infrastructure to a multinational company (Cargill), which, together with other (inter)national seed companies, participates in their commercial activities in subsidized input programs (Chinsanga 2011).”
Impact of Improved Maize Adoption on Welfare of Farm Households in Malawi: A Panel Data Analysis (2014, background): “…shortfalls were forecast and, despite donor reticence, government-led interventions were resumed, first, from 1998 to 2000 in the form of the Starter Pack Program, then up to 2005 as the Targeted Input Program, and finally, to date, as the Agricultural Input Subsidy Program (Chinsinga, 2011).”
Integrated Seed Sector Development in Africa: A Conceptual Framework for Creating Coherence Between Practices, Programs, and Policies (2012, background): “In several countries (Malawi, Zambia), the maize model is embedded in national subsidized input programs targeting national food security and enterprise development; however, in both countries these programs take a major share of the government budget available for agriculture (Chinsanga 2011; Nakap”