Malawi: Access to land, growth and poverty reduction

After four decades of agricultural-led development strategies in the postindependent Malawi, economic growth has been erratic and a large proportion of the population live below the poverty line and studies suggests that the poverty situation has worsened. Smallholder farmers face several constraints including landlessness and small land holdings and declining agricultural productivity, states this University of Malawi study, which argues that past agricultural strategies have been less successful because they ignored the land question among smallholder farmers.