The evolution of agricultural input subsidy programs: contextualizing policy debates in Malawi’s FISP

Abstract

Malawi has been associated with the re-emergence of agricultural input subsidy programs in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) since its launching of the Farm Inputs Subsidy Program (FISP) in 2005. It has also been at the center of policy debates regarding its capacity to launch a uniquely African Green Revolution within a marketized and capitalist configuration, and in a context of constrained public resources. Such debates have been informed by the evidentiary literature, which has been mixed and sharply divided. This paper, using qualitative methods, explores how such debates have shaped Malawi’s food security policies and brought about recent alignment in government and donor policy positions. The results indicate that the recent change in FISP policy is intimately linked to wider concerns to commercialize agriculture and the general reconfiguration of food security policy to more accurately reflect presumed ‘possibilities’ and what is fiscally pragmatic. The paper highlights some of the complexities that have been faced by policy makers in the process of devising appropriate pro-poor agricultural and food security policies within the broader enterprise of economic growth in a rather challenging context. It contributes to scholarly efforts to untangle Malawi’s food security-development policy paradox™ which might be relevant to other countries in SSA.