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.

Agricultural development in Malawi faces an important conundrum. While agriculture is the backbone of the economy, many smallholders will not be able to farm their way out of poverty.

Primary agricultural cooperatives in Malawi, in contrast to other farmer-level organizations, have legal status and can own assets, borrow money for their operations, and sign contracts, making it easier for them to do business for the profit of t

Malawi has suffered from weak economic growth since its independence in 1964. Over 50 percentof the population live below the poverty line, unable to produce enough or to otherwise obtain suffi cient income to meet all of their basic needs.

While contract farming provides opportunities to link smallholder farmers to markets, its sustainability depends on how the interests of both farmers and buyers are addressed.

Malawi’s economic future is dependent upon a transformation of the economy that will involve increased economic productivity overall and considerable movement of labor and capital out of agriculture and into manufacturing and services.

Despite concerted efforts to develop the fisheries sector in many developing countries, fish demand remains poorly understood due to weak and fragmented domestic markets, particularly in Africa south of the Sahara.

Using three rounds of the Integrated Household Survey conducted between 2004 and 2016, this paper examines Malawi’s challenging employment landscape, focusing on its rapidly growing youth.

Improving social assistance programs is imperative to addressing problems of poverty and vulnerability in Malawi. Emergency aid has played an important role in alleviating hunger during humanitarian crises such as those in 2015-16 and 2016-17.

This paper considers potential strategic options for agriculture and development in Malawi in the context of the country’s current situation and the prospects the country faces.