Curated Content

Rural labor markets in Africa are frequently characterized by underemployment, with farmers unable to fully deploy throughout the year one of their most important assets—their labor. Using a nine-year panel data set on 1,407 working-age adults from rural Malawi, we document changes in rural underemployment over this period and how they are associated with urbanization. Nearby urban growth results in increased hours worked in casual labor (ganyu) and in non-agricultural sectors, at the expense of work on the household farm. Improved ur-ban access is also associated with a small increase in wage labor and, at the intensive margin, with hours supplied in household enterprises. We draw lessons from these results for policies, investments, and interventions to leverage urban growth for rural development.

The pangs of climate change are real coupled with the rampant deforestation that is happening due to increased land pressure. This is an inspirational video where Mr. Andrew Goodmans is advocating for farmers to grow Giant Bamboo. Bamboos can cater for household and community needs in less than five years. The household only needs 10 bamboo seedling at afordable price.

This video demonstrates a new cost effective and innovative approach of in-Country Research Teams to conduct a phytosanitary and other assessments of their produce, capture them on a video and send it to the potential market.  In turn, the potential buyers watches the video and make a recommendation and approves whether to open their market to the seller/producer or not. Consequently, the market players saved a lot of time and financial resources for a team of deligates was supposed to travel from the South Africa to Malawi. This Video resulted in the opening up of the South African Market to Malawian mangoes, Right now (since 2023), Malawi is exporting Mangoes to South Africa.

NPPO-Malawi compiled two videos of pre-harvest and post-harvest handling processes that were inspected at Malawi Mangoes Limited in Salama. The video shows how the client complied with the requirements for the export markets including South Africa. NPPO-Malawi conducted the field inspections in three stages as outlined on the Import Permit: 1) Flowering; 2) Fruiting and 3) Harvest and post-harvest stages. This is Part 1 of the videos.

This video demonstrates a new cost effective and innovative approach of in-Country Research Teams to conduct a phytosanitary and other assessments of their produce, capture them on a video and send it to the potential market.  In turn, the potential buyers watches the video and make a recommendation and approves whether to open their market to the seller/producer or not. Consequently, the market players saved a lot of time and financial resources for a team of deligates was supposed to travel from the South Africa to Malawi. This Video resulted in the opening up of the South African Market to Malawian mangoes, Right now (since 2023), Malawi is exporting Mangoes to South Africa.

NPPO-Malawi compiled two videos of pre-harvest and post-harvest handling processes that were inspected at Malawi Mangoes Limited in Salama. The video shows how the client complied with the requirements for the export markets including South Africa. NPPO-Malawi conducted the field inspections in three stages as outlined on the Import Permit: 1) Flowering; 2) Fruiting and 3) Harvest and post-harvest stages. This is Part 1 of the videos.

Despite having potential, Malawi’s wheat production has been characterized by low production and productivity. The prospects for scaling up wheat production in Malawi are based on the suitability of different areas for wheat production, increase in global prices and existence of large and growing domestic and regional export markets. Scaling production of wheat in Malawi will fail unless challenges are addressed. These include overreliance on rainfed production, limited access to improved varieties for wheat, fertilizers, capacity building in best agronomic practices, and lack of access to existing lucrative markets. There is need to conduct a value chain analysis with key stakeholders to assist in developing the value chain

Insect farming is a high-potential emerging farming enterprise in sub-Saharan Africa and their production has a relatively small ecological footprint. Black Soldier Fly (BSF), Hermetia illucens, is a promising insect species for a sustainable and innovative alternative protein source in animal feed. Little or no evidence exists showing whether BSF is a viable alternative sustainable feed ingredient in aquaculture and animal feed in Malawi or an economically feasible option for farmers. The objective of the study is to evaluate the financial feasibility of BSF farming at various scales of production using Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) with data collected from a small-scale pilot BSF farm in Lilongwe. The study addressed the following research questions: (a) What are the costs and benefits of farming BSF in Malawi for (i) small-scale farming (individual farmers, clubs, and cooperatives), and (ii) large-scale commercial farmers? (b) What drives variation in the benefit/cost ratio (BCR) of BSF farming across scales? (c) How could policies improve BCRs of BSF farming to support adoption in Malawi? The indicators used to assess the economic viability of BSF farming for smallholder and commercial farmers in this study included Net Present Value (NPV) and Benefit Cost Ratio. Results imply BSF farming is viable and feasible across scales of production. Small-scale farmers will generate roughly MK507,100 (US$ of gross revenue for one larval cycle and MK2,535,500 (over $2,500) annually. Commercial farmers can generate MK1,536,100 for one larval cycle and MK7,680,750 annually. Sensitivity analysis shows BSF farming remains profitable even within a 10% variation in the cost of production, the price of outputs, and the yield of BSF larvae and frass.