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With research staff from more than 70 countries, and offices across the globe, IFPRI provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.

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Danielle Resnick

Danielle Resnick is a Senior Research Fellow in the Markets, Trade, and Institutions Unit and a Non-Resident Fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution. Her research focuses on the political economy of agricultural policy and food systems, governance, and democratization, drawing on extensive fieldwork and policy engagement across Africa and South Asia.

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Development Strategies and Governance

Lara Cockx

Research Fellow

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Lara Cockx

Bio

Lara Cockx is a Research Fellow in the Development Strategies and Governance Unit, currently based at IFPRI’s Malawi Country Office in Lilongwe. Prior to joining IFPRI, Lara was a research fellow at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in Spain, where she studied different aspects of food systems in West Africa.

She has also served as assistant professor of economics at Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan. She is an applied microeconomist with research interests in development and agricultural economics. Lara holds a PhD in Economics from KU Leuven in Belgium, and has published on topics including urbanization, internal migration, food security, and agricultural development.

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Publications

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Brief

Mindset or economics: What explains the dominance of maize in Malawi

2026Cockx, Lara; De Weerdt, Joachim; Duchoslav, Jan; Nagoli, Joseph
Details

Mindset or economics: What explains the dominance of maize in Malawi

Malawi’s policy ambitions increasingly emphasize the need for greater crop and diet diversity. De-spite these stated goals, the country’s food system continues to revolve around maize, both in pro-duction and consumption. This brief discusses the economic imperatives that drive low-income, land-constrained Malawians to prioritize maize. Only by addressing these underlying incentives can policy effectively reduce maize dominance and support the diversification agenda it seeks to advance.

Year published

2026

Authors

Cockx, Lara; De Weerdt, Joachim; Duchoslav, Jan; Nagoli, Joseph

Citation

Cockx, Lara; De Weerdt, Joachim; Duchoslav, Jan; and Nagoli, Joseph. 2026. Mindset or economics: What explains the dominance of maize in Malawi. MaSSP Policy Note 55. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/181792

Country/Region

Malawi

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Eastern Africa; Maize; Consumer Behaviour; Consumer Economics; Feeding Habits; Economic Behaviour; Crop Production

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Brief

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Brief

The development potential of anchor enterprise models in Malawi

2025Benson, Todd; Cockx, Lara; De Weerdt, Joachim
Details

The development potential of anchor enterprise models in Malawi

Smallholder-centered agricultural development strategies have had limited success in Malawi over the past several decades. Policy makers are now increasingly looking for alternative ways to accelerate agricultural and rural development. One emerging approach involves larger farms or agri-business firms partnering with smallholder farming households, in what we will refer to as an anchor enterprise model. Support for such partnerships is growing, but there is still little clarity on what they involve, what they aim to achieve and the conditions they need for success. Summarizing findings from a detailed report (Benson, Cockx, and De Weerdt, forthcoming). This policy note seeks to address these questions and provide guidance for future action. We structure our discussion around five questions: what the model is, when it can make sense, for whom it can work, how it can be implemented, and whether it can contribute to inclusive rural development.

Year published

2025

Authors

Benson, Todd; Cockx, Lara; De Weerdt, Joachim

Citation

Benson, Todd; Cockx, Lara; and De Weerdt, Joachim. 2025. The development potential of anchor enterprise models in Malawi. MaSSP Policy Note 54. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/178508

Country/Region

Malawi

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Eastern Africa; Development; Enterprises; Contract Farming; Farming Systems

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Brief

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Opinion Piece

Malawi can end hunger after the 2025 elections if bold steps are taken to transform food systems

2025De Weerdt, Joachim; Chirwa, Gowokani Chijere; Duchoslav, Jan; Nagoli, Joseph; Cockx, Lara
Details

Malawi can end hunger after the 2025 elections if bold steps are taken to transform food systems

Malawi has a history of peaceful democratic transitions. Since the advent of multiparty politics in 1994, power has regularly shifted between rival parties. Citizens and institutions have upheld electoral democratic norms, from respecting term limits to rerunning elections after irregularities. Yet, democratic elections haven’t translated into economic prosperity, nor into strong economic institutions. Malawi remains the world’s poorest conflict-free nation. At the last count in 2019, 70% of Malawians lived below the international poverty line of US$2.15 per day. More than half of Malawi’s residents are deprived in many, overlapping ways.

Year published

2025

Authors

De Weerdt, Joachim; Chirwa, Gowokani Chijere; Duchoslav, Jan; Nagoli, Joseph; Cockx, Lara

Citation

De Weerdt, Joachim; Chirwa, Gowokani Chijere; Duchoslav, Jan; Nagoli, Joseph; and Cockx, Lara. 2025. Malawi can end hunger after the 2025 elections if bold steps are taken to transform food systems. The Conversation. Article published September 14, 2025. https://doi.org/10.64628/AAJ.yyj5xdcek

Country/Region

Malawi

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Hunger; Food Systems; Political Systems; Poverty

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.64628/aaj.yyj5xdcek Source record

Record type

Opinion Piece

Research

Topics/Countries