The Malawi 2002 Food Crisis: The Rural Development Challenge
Author(s)
Dorward, Andrew; Kydd, Jonathan
Abstract
From independence in 1964 until the early 21st century, neither state interventionism nor liberalization as national economic policies succeeded in reducing Malawi’s dire state of impoverishment. The government under longtime president Hastings K. Banda (1898-1997) fixed exchange rates, controlled crop markets, and created a number of monopolistic parastatal firms, which failed to increase production and raise living standards. Economic liberalization between the early 1990’s and early 2000’s failed to attract private investment or reduce the relative costs of crop production and delivery. Malawi by the year 2002 faced a looming food crisis, with its continuing weak internal markets, low levels of services, communications, education and literacy, poor health conditions, and restricted capital. Maize production by Malawi’s smallholders was stagnant, and much of the population remained dependent on foreign assistance, remittances from migrant workers, and monetary savings by returnees from foreign labor markets.
