This paper focuses on smallholder maize production in Malawi by investigating the linkbetween productivity and soil fertility management. Many studies conducted in Malawi indicate declining levels of maize productivity thereby posing food security concerns, since maize is the staple crop for...

This paper focuses on smallholder maize production in Malawi by investigating the linkbetween productivity and soil fertility management. Many studies conducted in Malawi indicate declining levels of maize productivity thereby posing food security concerns, since maize is the staple crop for...

Two sets of issues loom large on the economic horizon of Malawi: poverty alleviation and the country’s vulnerability to shocks emanating from the outside world. In this paper, simulations with a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model of Malawi are used to analyze aspects of these issues....

Global experience with pro-poor growth and empirical work spanning India, Malawi and Zimbabwe demonstrates the importance of agricultural growth for poverty reduction in poor rural areas, while also pointing to the need for complementary non-farm sector growth. Theoretical arguments, historical...

The paper analyses the factors that affect smallholder farmers choice of soil fertility management options in Malawi using a two-stage maximum likelihood estimation procedure. Using results from the Double-Hurdle model, the paper estimates the probabilities and intensities of fertilizer...

"This paper draws together findings from different elements of a research project examining critical components of pro-poor agricultural growth and of policies that can promote such growth in poor rural economies in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Agricultural growth, a critical driver in...

Two sets of issues loom large on the economic horizon of Malawi: poverty alleviation and the country's vulnerability to shocks emanating from the outside world. In this paper, simulations with a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model of Malawi are used to analyze aspects of these issues. Two...

We estimated a normalized translog yield-response model using African farm-household survey data to compare the yield of smallholder maize production under integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) and chemical-based soil fertility management. Controlling for other factors, maize yield...

We measure the level and determinants of technical efficiency of maize based smallholder farmers using a bootstrapped translog stochastic frontier that is a posteriori checked for functional consistency. The results show that higher levels of technical efficiency are obtained when farmers use...