Abstract
Macadamia is an essential commodity crop in Malawi. The nuts are a lucrative commodity and are used for household consumption, income generation among farming families and as a foreign exchange earning crop at country-level. Macadamia production in Malawi has increased significantly in recent years. Malawi is the seventh top producer of macadamia nuts valued at £23.5 million, with a global market share of 3%. In 2018, the country was the fourth-largest exporter of macadamia nuts that were valued at £18.2 million. The majority (90%) of this crop was grown by large commercial estates with smallholder’s production only contributing about 10% of the total crop production. However, the smallholder sector is vital for the future growth of the macadamia sector in the country. Further, Malawian smallholders consider macadamia production as a low-input crop with large returns per unit area (£10.7 kg−1 ha−1), and it thus a lucrative commodity with high potential for poverty reduction and wealth creation among these farming families. This paper, therefore, explores: (i) the historical and current trends in macadamia nut production in Malawi; (ii) analyses the country’s macadamia value chain focusing on smallholder farmer contributions; and (iii) discusses the constraints of smallholder macadamia production in Malawi for informed policymaking. We conclude that the synthesis of the Malawian macadamia sub-sector provides an understanding of the vital contributions of macadamia to Malawi’s economic growth and improvement of livelihoods.
Highlights
Malawi is a landlocked nation in southern Africa and located between Mozambique in the south-east and south-west, Zambia in the north-west, and Tanzania in the north-east.According to the Population Pyramid, the country covers an area of 118,484 km2, with a rapidly growing population of over 18 million inhabitants
The majority of the macadamia export volumes from Malawi are sourced from commercial estates rather than smallholder farmers
Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) has been working on improving the macadamia value chain by promoting more smallholder farmers in macadamia production as a way of diet and income diversification, training smallholders in farm business management, and facilitation of linkages between public and private actors within the value chain
Summary
Malawi is a landlocked nation in southern Africa and located between Mozambique in the south-east and south-west, Zambia in the north-west, and Tanzania in the north-east. Smallholder production accounts for 90% of all the food produced in Malawi, contributes over 25% of the entire country’s GDP and employs 95% of the total labor force [1] These smallholders have limited livelihood options other than subsistence farming, with maize as the staple crop (occupying 60% of cultivated land) and tobacco as the main cash crop [3]. Malawi has a suitable climate and altitude conditions for macadamia production, and the vast tracts of land available in the country, especially in the central and northern regions, provide an area for expansion [15] Despite this potential, macadamia nuts’ contribution to Malawi’s economic growth is not well documented [16]. Suitable clisub-sector in Malawi its contributions food security country’s mate and altitude conditions for macadamia production, and the vast tracts of land availThis is because most studies have mainly focused on important staple and cash crops [18].
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