Greenwell Matchaya

The impact of cooperative patronage: The case of National Small Holder Farmers’ Association (NASFAM) of Malawi in Kasungu District

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the impact of individual farmers’ participation in the National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi (NASFAM). Precisely the paper analyses the effect of participation on credit market access, fertilizer use and total incomes of its participants in the Kasungu district of Malawi. NASFAM is a form of producer cooperative with a number of socio-economic functions. Using data on income per capita, fertilizer expenditure and access to credit, this paper tests the hypothesis that participation in NASFAM positively impacted incomes, fertilizer use and credit acquisition. Employing Propensity Score Matching methodology to estimate Average Treatment Effects (ATT) on programme members, this paper finds evidence that participation in NASFAM had a positive effect on all the endogenous variables. Membership enhances household level incomes, fertilizer use and credit acquisition and is hence in line with national goals of poverty reduction, the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) principles, the SADCs Regional Indicative Strategy Development Plan (RISDP) and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Based on these findings and the fact that credit and fertilizer access are still problematic in Malawis rural areas, it appears that there is great need for NASFAM to expand to areas where it currently does not have activities. Such expansion would ensure food security over a wider range of rural households through improved input access.

Economic Aspects of Genetic Resources in Addressing Agricultural Productivity in the Context of Climate Change

The main objective of this paper is to discuss the economic aspects of genetic resources in addressing agricultural productivity in the context of climate change and variability in Africa. The paper synthesizes the published literature related to this topic, which has not been well integrated, especially with respect to economic improvements and the use of genetic resources in Africa. The focus is to understand the nexus between climate change, genetic resources, and agricultural productivity; the economic aspects involved in the conservation and improvement of genetic resources at farm-level use; and the adoption of these technologies to address agricultural productivity. The results show that climate change affects both genetic resources and agricultural productivity. The interaction of climate change and other stressors exacerbates the vulnerability of agricultural production systems and genetic resources. The conservation and improvement of genetic resources should address the urgent need to increase investments in conservation and the development of future adapted technologies. At the farm level, the focus should be on developing distribution and dissemination systems, including raising awareness and educating farmers on the role of genetic resource technologies in addressing agricultural productivity under climate change. Furthermore, it is critical to ensure that farmers have the means to purchase the improved genetic resource technologies to be able to use and adopt them. Efforts to conserve, improve, and promote the use of genetic resource technologies in addressing agricultural productivity should integrate the distribution, accessibility, and use of the improved technologies at the farm level and be integrated in broader adaptation and development efforts.

Do local land institutions make a dime's worth of a difference in rural land markets? Evidence from Malawi

Purpose - – It has been argued that traditional land transfer systems provide disincentives for farmers to trade their land, thus reducing land availability and depressing productivity. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of land rentals under customary land ownership in matrilineal and patrilineal traditions and under formal land registration in the rural areas of Malawi. Design/methodology/approach - – Using new data collected from around 100 households farming around 200 parcels in three regions of Malawi, a number of models are estimated with ordinary least squares. Findings - – The paper finds some evidence that some variables within the traditional system of land holding are crucial for land rentals. However, when land titles are used as a proxy for security of tenure, none of the relationships commonly hypothesized between land ownership security and land lease are corroborated. Land registration is found to have no significant effects on land and rentals. Social implications - – These results put into question the potency of sole land registration as a means of enhancing land market activities for rural masses in Malawi. Originality/value - – The uniqueness of this paper rests in it its use of context-specific constructs of land ownership security. Moreover the tested hypotheses emerge from a theoretical model that is unique to the literature on rural land markets and land tenure.