ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to show how Malawi’s structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) may have acted to constrain, rather than stimulate, peasant production. It examines the implications for national agricultural input and output supply, and economic progress and welfare in the context of the liberalization of agricultural marketing. Malawi attained independence in 1964 with an entirely agricultural economic base and as one of the poorest countries in the world. The Malawi government has sought to stimulate peasant agricultural production within the framework of rural development projects and schemes. The agricultural sector itself is of a dual structure comprising private estates and the much larger peasant sub-sector. The peasant sector is much larger than the private estate sector both in terms of the amount of land held and the volume of production. The main target of Malawi’s SAPs was the agricultural sector because it was the leading economic sector.
