Land scarcity, resettlement and food security: Assessing the effect of voluntary resettlement on diet quality in Malawi

Abstract

Food insecurity persists globally, with lack of access to farmland among the main factors contributing to chronic undernourishment. Population resettlement to areas of low density presents a possible but controversial solution to land scarcity. This paper examines the case of Malawi’s Community Based Rural Land Development Project, a World Bank funded internal resettlement scheme for 15,000 participating households. Based on four months of fieldwork, including a survey of 200 households, 5 focus group discussions and 20 expert interviews, we assess how voluntary, internal, ‘rural to rural’ resettlement affects food security and nutrition through diet quality. Overall, we found that lack of wage labour opportunities and poor access to markets lowered food access (HDDS) among beneficiaries compared to non-beneficiaries (who did not participate in the resettlement scheme from the outset but were eligible), former beneficiaries (who had participated in scheme but had abandoned it by the time of the study), and national averages. Diet quality (IDDS) varied significantly according to resettlement location, as well as between beneficiaries and former-and non-beneficiaries, where overall, beneficiaries who were still living in their resettlement location at the time of the study had the lowest IDDS and therefore poorest diet quality. The regression results and the focus group discussions suggest that beyond access to infrastructure and markets, secure entitlements to training and farming inputs need to be sustained and improved in relocation areas to bring about positive food security outcomes for resettled populations.