Fertilizer Subsidies In Malawi From Past To Present

Author : Benson, Todd
Publisher : Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 27 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Download or read book Fertilizer subsidies in Malawi: From past to present written by Benson, Todd and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2024-02-12 with total page 27 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Malawi has been at the center of the debate on agricultural input subsidies in Africa ever since it significantly expanded its fertilizer subsidy program about two decades ago. When it did so, Malawi was a trailblazer, receiving international attention for seemingly leveraging the subsidy program to move the country from a situation characterized by food deficits and widespread hunger to crop production surpluses. In this paper we trace the history of Malawi’s subsidy program over the past 70 years, describing how the country arrived at that watershed moment earlier this century and how the subsidy program has developed since. We show how donor support for the program has wavered and how external pressure to remove the subsidy has repeatedly been unsuccessful. We also demonstrate how over the years the program’s total fiscal burden has fluctuated significantly. However, we find that since the expansion of the subsidy program in 2004, the fiscal costs of the program have shown little correlation with the maize harvest that same agricultural season. We show that the subsidy program has succeeded in raising awareness about the value of the fertilizer for increased crop productivity. However, despite its continued prominence in the country’s agricultural policy, most Malawian smallholder do not manage to grow sufficient maize to feed their households throughout the year, and every year millions depend on food assistance during the worst months of the lean season.

Author : Ephraim Chirwa
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199683522
Total Pages : 315 pages
Book Rating : 4.29/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Agricultural Input Subsidies written by Ephraim Chirwa and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-09-26 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book takes forward our understanding of agricultural input subsidies in low income countries.

Author : Michael Johnson
Publisher : Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 32 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Download or read book Understanding the Role of Research in the Evolution of Fertilizer Policies in Malawi written by Michael Johnson and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2013-04-25 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study examines the role of research in agricultural policy making in Malawi at a time when the Africa Union and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development have been seeking to promote greater evidenced-based decision making in agriculture. Drawing on both theory and actual past experiences documented in the literature, results are intended to improve our understanding of the extent to which research has played any role in influencing policy change in Malawi. This is done in the context of the evolution of the country’s fertilizer subsidy policies. Results point to some general lessons. First, strengthening the Ministry of Agriculture’s capacity for policy analysis and becoming more proactive in the policy process proved critical in the earlier years of Malawi’s long history of fertilizer subsidies. Second, the government’s experience of bargaining with donors may have actually strengthened its own ability to position and assert its legitimacy in shaping policies. Third, while research may have played a historically marginal role, researchers have been able to influence policy choices whenever a window of opportunity arose for technical input—such as at times of crisis. However, researchers would also benefit from engaging more with the policy debates and policymaking process. Finally, while the paper draws on existing theoretical frameworks to understand the role of research in the policy process more generally, a better framework still needs to be developed in describing the standard experiences and realities of the African agricultural policy landscape.

Author : Harou, Aurélie
Publisher : Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 36 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Download or read book Variable returns to fertilizer use and its relationship to poverty written by Harou, Aurélie and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-09-29 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite the rise of targeted input subsidy programs in Africa over the last decade, several questions remain as to whether low and variable soil fertility, frequent drought, and high fertilizer prices render fertilizer unprofitable for large subpopulations of African farmers. To examine these questions, we use large-scale, panel experimental data from maize field trials throughout Malawi to estimate the expected physical returns to fertilizer use conditional on a range of agronomic factors and weather conditions. Using these estimated returns and historical price and weather data, we simulate the expected profitability of fertilizer application over space and time. We find that the fertilizer bundles distributed under Malawi’s subsidy program are almost always profitable in expectation, although our results may be reasonably interpreted as upper-bound estimates among more skilled farmers given that the experimental subjects were not randomly selected.

Author : De Weerdt, Joachim
Publisher : Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 3 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Download or read book Are fertilizer subsidies in Malawi value for money? written by De Weerdt, Joachim and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2022-06-29 with total page 3 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is easy enough to calculate how much the Government of Malawi spends on subsidizing chemical fertilizer. Last year, for example, this was MWK 120 billion (about US$ 150 million) taking up over 50% of the agricultural budget. It is much harder, however, to calculate the benefits that these subsidies bring about and how they stack up against the costs. In this policy note, we combine multiple methods and sources of data to narrow down the range of possible benefit estimates, compare it to the cost of subsidies, and propose changes to current policies to make fertilizer subsidies more efficient and affordable.

Author : Banda, Chimwemwe
Publisher : Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 4 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Download or read book Self-targeted fertilizer subsidies written by Banda, Chimwemwe and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2022-12-06 with total page 4 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If Malawi’s fertilizer subsidy program aims to increase food security in the country, it should strive to target the most productive farmers. Subsidy levels can be set to self-target this group of farmers. This would maximize output achieved with subsidized fertilizer and eliminate the need for costly and error-prone top-down targeting. Maximizing the productive capacity of the AIP In a previous policy note, we argued that by setting the farmer contribution to fertilizer subsidized under that Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) so that farmer demand matches what the program can supply, the government can maximize the total amount of fertilizer available for distribution under the program (Banda et al.,2022). In this note, we argue that a second advantage of this pricing strategy is that it ensures that each subsidized bag of fertilizer has the largest possible yield response, thus maximizing the additional amount of food produced through the program.

Author : Kurdi, Sikandra
Publisher : Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 24 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Download or read book Too much of a good thing? Evidence that fertilizer subsidies lead to overapplication in Egypt written by Kurdi, Sikandra and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-03-12 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As part of a national policy to ensure a certain level of food self-sufficiency in strategic crops, the government of Egypt subsidizes nitrogen fertilizer directly by distributing quotas of subsidized fertilizers to farmers and indirectly by subsidizing natural gas used by local fertilizer factories. The implication of this subsidy on farmers’ fertilizer demand and productivity remains unknown. Using a detailed agricultural survey collected from smallholder farmers in Upper Egypt, we show that nitrogen fertilizer application rates are substantially in excess of crop-specific agronomic recommendations. We exploit eligibility criteria and other sources of variation to show that farm plots with easier access to the subsidy tend to use more subsidized nitrogen fertilizer and less phosphate fertilizer. Easier access to the subsidy increases use of total nitrogen fertilizer per unit of land, mainly because of the increase in subsidized nitrogen fertilizer. In particular, the fertilizer subsidy program in Egypt is associated with significant overapplication of nitrogen fertilizer. Such overapplication of fertilizer is expected to adversely affect soil, water, and environmental health. Our findings have important policy implications for Egypt and other African countries known for input subsidy programs. As Egypt is currently moving on from the successful implementation of a comprehensive macroeconomic reform program towards sector-level reforms, our results suggest that eliminating fertilizer subsidies is a good place to start.

Author : Pauw, Karl
Publisher : Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 4 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Download or read book Malawi's farm input subsidy program: Where do we go from here? written by Pauw, Karl and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on with total page 4 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Ragasa, Catherine
Publisher : Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 44 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Download or read book The impact of agricultural extension services in the context of a heavily subsidized input system written by Ragasa, Catherine and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-01-08 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper aims to test this hypothesis and to contribute to better understanding of strategies to revitalize the agricultural extension system in Malawi. Specifically, it examines the interplay between the fertilizer subsidy and access to extension services, and their impact on farm productivity and food security in Malawi. Results show that the fertilizer subsidy has inconsistent impact on farm productivity and food security; at the same time, access to agricultural advice was consistently insignificant in explaining farm productivity and food security. Further analysis, however, shows that when access to extension services is unpacked to include indicators of usefulness and farmers’ satisfaction, these indicators were statistically significant. Households who reported that they received very useful agricultural advice had greater productivity and greater food security than those who reported receiving advice that they considered not useful. This result implies the need to ensure the provision of relevant and useful agricultural advice to increase the likelihood of achieving agricultural development outcomes

Author : Blessings Chinsinga
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 104 pages
Book Rating : 4.61/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Planting Ideas written by Blessings Chinsinga and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The authors argue that it is possible to design an effective and efficient subsidy for small farmers.