Abstract

The purpose of this study was to conduct a literature review on gender segmented markets and production systems in Malawi. The underlying argument from the review is that the gender disparities in the agricultural sector make it very difficult for the sector to realise its potential to the fullest. While gender inequalities exist in almost all sectors of the economy, the main form of gender gaps in agriculture relate to access to and control of land, access to credit, access to agricultural implements, including machinery and individual characteristics such as age, experience and education, among others. The review also shows that most of socio-economic challenges and gender imbalances being experienced in Malawi are not necessarily due to lack of relevant policy instruments but rather weak enforcement efforts and inconsistent implementation of policies. Furthermore, the challenges exist in both the production of commodities in the farm and supply of agricultural produce in output markets. With respect to output markets, the key challenges are poor access to infrastructure, limited access to structured commodity markets and inefficiencies introduced by Government interventions in agricultural markets. It is against this finding that we provide three key recommendations as the basis for charting the way forward, namely enforcement of the land reform law, improving access to credit, expansion of extension services and training to ensure adequate access to information and market opportunities.

Keywords

production systems; Malawi

Published in

AgriFoSe2030 Report
2018, number: 8
eISBN: 978-91-576-9577-2
Publisher: SLU Global, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

UKÄ Subject classification

Gender Studies
Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/103572