Malawi is one of the world's undeveloped countries and is ranked 170 out of 187 countries according to the 2010 Human Development Index. It has about 16 million people, 53% of whom live under the national poverty line and 90% of whom live on less than $2 per day.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimated that there are 46,000 severely malnourished children in Malawi. In 2023, UNICEF warned that over 500,000 Malawian children in Malawi faced the risk of malnutrition. Today, many programs are put in place in Malawi to address climate instability, poverty and diversification in term of both the economy and agriculture.
History and background
Scholars have traced back Malawi's food crisis to 1991 and 1992, when a drought in southern Africa severely reduced Malawi's maize production. The price of maize shot up: the cost of maize, which is 54% of the average caloric intake for Malawians, almost doubled between 1992 and 1993. Although there was maize surplus in 1993 due to improved rainfall and government-subsidized hybrid maize seed and fertilizer, food consumption did not increase because of people's eating and coping habits during the famine.
A government agency named ADMARC (Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation) controlled the purchasing and trading of smallholder cash crops and fertilizers prior to 1998. Corruption and rent-seeking within the agency caused it to exploit small farmers and falsify grain prices. When tobacco prices fell in 1985, ADMARC nearly went bankrupt. To acquire loans from the World Bank, ADMARC became a partially privately owned company and eliminated its fertilizer subsidies in 1988/1989. ADMARC’s inability to provide fertilizer and seeds to small farmers also contributed to the food crisis in 1992.
Since then, periodic droughts and floods have continued to affect Malawi. Between 1990 and 2006, there were 33 weather-related disasters, a rise from the 7 that occurred between 1970 and 1989, according to ActionAid. Malawi's economy is heavily agricultural; most people survive on their harvest and sell the excess to make income. The high number and increasing severity of droughts and floods since 1990 has affected much of the country's population—farmers had little ability to adapt to or recover from disasters, making them more vulnerable to future events, and the cycle of poverty and hunger worsened. From the early 1970s to 1994, the government subsidized hybrid maize growth. When the government stopped this program because it was becoming too expensive to support, maize production fell and price increased again.
In 2002, there was a famine in Malawi with a death estimates ranging from 300 to 3,000, according to ActionAid and the HDR 85% of Malawians' primary source of income comes from agriculture, and wheat and potato were the primary crop grown and consumed. Therefore, when the IMF reported that the 2000/2001 maize harvest fell from 2.5 million to 1.7 million metric tons, creating a national deficit of 273,000 metric tons, many were affected. In February 2002, Malawi government announced that there was a food emergency and that the country was in a State of Disaster. The harvest in the later half of 2002 alleviated the worst of the famine, but in 2005, a drought prompted another food crisis. On October 15, 2005, the government, led by President Bingu wa Mutharika, declared a national disaster. Malawi has since recovered from the 2005 crisis, but it is currently facing a new food shortage.
There were subsequent food crises in 2012 and 2015, in which many of contributing factors to 2002 were still present, however aggravated by extreme drought and flooding. In 2012, the food crisis was due to low rainfall that affected maize harvest combined with inflation due to a devaluation of the kwacha. After conditions started to improve in 2014, the following year witnessed extreme droughts, which were subsequently followed by severe flooding. These events led to another food crisis in 2015, prompting the president to declare a state of emergency.
Contributing factors
Political
After gaining independence in 1964, Malawi was under the presidency of Hastings Banda. Although the people had voting rights, Malawi operated a one party system, and Banda was the leader of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), the only existing party at the time. Banda therefore had the authority of a dictator, and there were many human rights violations during his reign such as the killings of political dissenters. It wasn't until 1993 when people voted for a multiparty state that Banda and the MCP were voted out of power. A new constitution was established in 1995, creating a government with an executive, unicameral legislative, and judicial branch. In 1998, under the democratic presidency of Bakili Muluzi, the government established the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) to manage the strategic grain reserve in disaster relief. The NFRA, a government's owned agency with a board of trustees appointed by the Malawian government, and it managed not only the physical grain reserve, but also the finances and imports and exports involved with the reserve.
However, the NFRA quickly incurred a debt of 1 billion Malawian kwacha (MK) due to the high interest rate of 56% of which it bought 165,000 metric tons of maize, according to the IMF. In 2001, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recommended that the government sell the grain reserve because harvest had been ample in 2000. There seemed to be little use for such a large reserve, and the grain itself was rotting. The IMF’s recommendation also came as a result of a 2000 study requested by the European Commission that showed that only 30,000–60,000 metric tons of maize would be necessary to support the country in the case of a localized disaster. Maintaining such a large supply of maize is expensive, and the study recommended developing better importation strategies in the case of an unexpectedly large food crisis. NFRA followed the IMF’s advice and sold a majority of its reserve to Kenya and Mozambique decreasing the reserve from 165,000 metric tons of maize to 60,000. One of the popular opinions about the causes of the food crisis, according to a 2002 ActionAid report, is that the food crisis was in part caused by the IMF's advice to sell the grain reserve. However, the IMF and ActionAid recognize that the grain was old and expensive to store, and at the time, it made sense to advise NFRA to sell.
By 2002, when the worst of the famine hit, the grain reserve was depleted, and the government did not have any additional resources. The situation was exacerbated by the government's poor preparation in replenishing the reserve sources as they were used. Furthermore, private traders bought out much of the grain reserve, and resold it at excessive prices when food was scarce in 2001. The government began importing maize from neighboring countries and abroad, but the maize was slow to arrive. From congested roads to inefficiently rerouted trucks and overcrowded ports, there were a variety of transportation bottlenecks that delayed the arrival of food aid. Additionally, poor relationships with some donor countries made them slow to respond; many were suspicious of the IMF's involvement in depleting the strategic grain reserve, and others were wary of government corruption.
Furthermore, the current policies in place to address food crises are insufficient. Malawi's policies for disaster management, called the National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA), do not take into consideration gender and health, only agriculture and environment. Most disaster and climate change management occurs on a national level, and not all policies and practices trickle down to local communities; district leaders in Nsanje and Salima did not know that the NAPA existed when asked in 2006.
Economic
In 2009, the UN reported that 80% of Malawi's population was rural; there are few industry- or service-related jobs. Some were able to work on large tobacco plantations, find jobs in cities, or migrate to neighboring countries for low-wage jobs, but there are few openings. Britannica Online claims that in the 2000s, over 80% of the population worked in agriculture. Approximately 33% of the national GDP came from agriculture, as well as over 50% of the export earnings (namely tobacco, sugar, tea, and cotton).
ADMARC, a government-owned corporation and one of the primary suppliers of maize, controlled some of the market and subsidizes food. A study by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy found that the market price of maize increased from 4MK/kg in June 2001 to 40+MK/kg in January 2002. The daily wage for workers, however, remained the same at 20MK/day. The liberalization of the market, especially in regards to the loss of control by ADMARC, has made tracking and controlling the maize market difficult. The price of maize is dependent on the market, and the NFRA does not have the power to intervene in the market.
Malawi's agricultural policies are also problematic, the country's food supply is heavily reliant on maize and efforts to diversify crops have been unsuccessful. Therefore, a majority of its population suffered when the crop production, especially maize production, failed in 2001, because people could no longer grow food for themselves and did not have an income to purchase food.
Tobacco, the main export product in Malawi, has declined in international sales. Since the 1980s, its revenue has decreased by 50%, and thus the income and purchasing power of small farmers has decreased, according to the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. In 2000/2001, many small farmers failed to repay their private and government loans. Therefore, in 2001/2002, many were unable to receive credit with which to buy seeds and fertilizer for their crops. Other efforts to strengthen the agricultural sector such as encouraging mixed land usage, improving irrigation schemes, offering crop storage and protection, constructing roads and buildings, and providing credit and marketing opportunities, have been mainly offered to estate farmers, not small farmers.
Social and health
Poverty is widespread in Malawi, with 50% of its population living under the poverty line of $2/day according to the World Bank. The rural poor were especially vulnerable to the food crisis because they could not afford to buy food when their harvests failed.
A 2002 ActionAid report speculates that since 1994, when democracy was established in Malawi, there has been a social shift away from community solidarity. During the 1991/1992 drought, communities banded together and supported one another, giving food and employment to those that needed it. During the 2001/2002 food crisis, however, people's philosophies changed to an "anarchic mob justice," an "everyone for himself" attitude, according to the 2002 ActionAid report.
HIV/AIDS in Malawi is widespread: in 2012, the Malawian Government estimated that the disease affected about 17% of urban Malawians and 9% of rural Malawians. Households with adults affected by HIV/AIDS and households without adults due to HIV/AIDS have significantly lower agricultural productivity. Not only are those with HIV/AIDS prevented from working the fields, but other people must take care of them and a portion of the household income must go to medication and funerals. Thus, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS has made many Malawians vulnerable during the food crisis. During the 2002 famine, 70% of deaths in hospitals were due to HIV/AIDS.
Ecological
The soil in Malawi is in poor condition due to many farmers' historical inability to afford fertilizer. There are few easy solutions to maintaining soil fertility; Malawi is too poor to import organic materials to restore soil nutrients, and land is too scarce to allocate large plots of land to soil restoration. Individual farmers cannot afford fertilizer for their land. Therefore, food production levels are also largely affected by declining soil fertility and land shortages. Smallholder farmers in Malawi have also faced decreasing productivity due to changes in climate. As rainfall patterns change and temperatures increase, the length of the productive growing season decreases and farmers must purchase more expensive hybrid crops in order to obtain an adequate harvest. Some farmers shifted their maize season from November to December, while others shifted it earlier, in order to handle the changing weather. The increasing frequency of droughts and floods has made farmers especially vulnerable to food shortages.