Under what policy and market conditions will Malawi’s smallholder farmers switch from tobacco to soyabean?

Johnson, Michael E.; Edelman, Brent; and Kazembe, Cynthia. 2016. Under what policy and market conditions will Malawi’s smallholder farmers switch from tobacco to soyabean? MaSSP Policy Note 26. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148554

Malawi has the potential to reorient its smallholder agriculture away from being primarily directed towards assuring household subsistence and self-sufficiency to increased commercial production, including of soyabean. This shift would reduce the country’s reliance on tobacco and diversify its agricultural production and exports. As a legume, furthermore, soyabean would also have the additional benefit of improving soil health, through biological nitrogen fixation and crop rotations, and child nutrition, if the nutritious soyabean is consumed at home or increased income from soya sales is used to provide children with more diverse and healthier diets. But this reorientation will require that government creates the conditions for private sector to invest in the increased production of soyabean, both through the support of input loan packages and a more stable marketing environment for the crop.