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Rural poverty in Malawi Deeply entrenched poverty is a major obstacle to Malawi’s development and growth. The country depends on foreign aid to shore up its weak economy and overcome food shortages. In the past decade, foreign aid in the form of loans and grants amounted to 14 per cent of Malawi’s gross domestic product. Emergency aid helps feed poor Malawians, but long-term poverty reduction measures are the key to future development. About 8 million people, or almost 70 per cent of Malawians, live below the national poverty line. More than 90 per cent of them live in rural areas and depend on subsistence farming for their livelihoods. For the poor people of Malawi, poverty often means hunger. The country recently emerged from four consecutive years of drought and chronic food insecurity. In 2006 a bumper maize harvest promised to meet the immediate needs of most Malawians. Generally better weather conditions and timely use of subsidized seeds and fertilizers supplied by donors and the government had made the difference over a large part of the country. But the good news about the maize harvest did not banish the spectre of hunger from rural areas that were affected by dry spells or floods during the growing season. When their limited harvests fail or are inadequate, rural poor people do not have cash to buy food, and they go hungry. Even in years when rainfall is adequate, 40 per cent of Malawi’s people do not have the purchasing power to be able to satisfy their daily needs. Chronic poverty and repeated food crises have depleted their livelihoods. Most households are food secure only for eight to ten months of the year. During the hungry season from December to February, poorer households regularly go without eating for an entire day, and when they do eat, most of them consume fewer than two full meals a day. Poverty and consequent food insecurity are most severe in the southern and central regions of the country. Typically the most vulnerable households have less than 1 ha of land to cultivate, they are headed by a woman and household members have little or no education. Poverty weighs heaviest on children and mothers. One in five children dies before its fifth birthday. Almost half of all children under five are chronically malnourished. Chronic malnutrition, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, substandard health services and lack of clean drinking water have combined to drive average life expectancy in Malawi down from 46 years in 1996 to 38 years in 2002. One million Malawians are infected with HIV/AIDS, which caused 90,000 deaths in 2003 and has left some 400,000 children orphaned. Because of the high death rate, the population is very young: about 72 per cent of Malawians are under 25 years of age. And young people often lack the skills and experience they need to shoulder the burden of caring for orphans and chronically ill or disabled family members. Inequalities between men and women further exacerbate poverty and the spread of the HIV/AIDS infection. Women make up 70 per cent of the full-time agricultural labour force, but they have severely limited access to services such as education, health care, credit and agricultural inputs. More women are infected with the HIV virus than men. Maternal mortality is among the highest in the world. Households headed by women have fewer assets, limited access to productive inputs and land, a greater burden of dependants, limited opportunities for off-farm employment and longer periods of food insecurity. Who are Malawi’s rural poor people? Poverty affects people who are in one of three different groups:
The core poor include the elderly, the sick, the disabled and children, especially orphans. About one third of Malawi’s people are classified as core poor. For them, safety net programmes are the only lifeline to survival for the foreseeable future. The poorest households, in which food insecurity is chronic, include proportionately more households headed by women, orphans and the elderly, and households caring for the chronically ill and fostering orphaned children. In all groups, there is relatively little difference between those who are better or worse off. Even moderately better-off Malawians have barely enough resources to meet their basic needs. Where are Malawi’s rural poor? Although poverty is widespread, it is most severe in the southern and central regions. The densely populated southern region has proportionately more poor households than the central and northern regions. About 68 per cent of people living in the south are classified as poor and 32 per cent as core poor. Landholdings in the south are smaller and more fragmented than those in other regions. More than 45 per cent of households in the southern region are headed by women, and the south has the highest rates or rural illiteracy. Why are they poor? The main causes of poverty in rural areas include:
In Malawi’s predominantly agriculture-based economy, small-scale farmers remain strongly attached to maize production. Soil fertility declines as a result of monocropping, and farmers depend on improved seed and fertilizer to achieve food security on small plots. But subsidies and targeted input programmes undermine progress towards a more market-oriented rural economy. In the wake of efforts in the mid-1990s to liberalize agricultural production, opening up opportunities for cash crop production and access to agricultural markets for small-scale farmers, price subsidies for maize seed and fertilizer were suspended. The Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC), sole purchaser of small-scale farmers’ produce, was privatized and withdrew from servicing remote rural areas. A smallholder credit scheme collapsed. For most farmers, the result was that their livelihoods had become even more precarious. In an unstable macroeconomic environment, farmers and entrepreneurs avoid taking risks, preferring to scale down activities and shunning uncertain markets. Weaknesses in rural organizations, agricultural technology and markets, and limited opportunities for non-farm employment further hinder development.
Source: IFAD |
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