Famine in Malawi: Causes and Consequences

human development, climate change

Staple food prices in Malawi

Prepared for the Comesa policy seminar on “Variation in staple food prices: Causes, consequence, and policy options”, Maputo, Mozambique, 25-26 January 2010 under the African Agricultural Marketing Project (AAMP)Malawi, food security, food prices, Agricultural and Food Policy, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Security and Poverty, International Development, International Relations/Trade, q11, q13, q18,

Malawi’s Maize Marketing System

National food security in Malawi depends on improving the performance of maize markets. Ensuring that grain is consistently available at tolerable prices is crucial for consumers’ food security. At the same time, surplus producing farmers need to receive farm-gate prices consistently above production costs to intensify the use of fertilizer and other productivity enhancing technologies in a sustainable manner. These concerns give rise to the classic food price dilemma for policy makers in Malawi: how to keep prices low enough to ensure low income consumers’ access to food while keeping prices high enough to promote farm production incentives. These tensions cannot be avoided but they can be relieved through reducing food marketing margins, which shrink the wedge between producer and consumer prices. Moreover, Malawi faces major political and economic problems associated with food price instability especially given its dependence on rain fed agriculture in a region prone to drought. These issues show that improving the performance of maize markets is at the core of achieving sustainable food security and poverty reduction in Malawi.food security, Malawi, maize, marketing, food policy, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Food Security and Poverty, International Development, Marketing, q12, q18,

Mathematical Programming Model for the Two-Level Facility Location Problem: The Case of Tanzanian Emergence Maize Distribution Network for 2004–2010 Maize Data

A two-level facility location problem (FLP) has been studied in the transportation network of emergence maize crop in Tanzania. The facility location problem is defined as the optimal location of facilities or resources so as to minimize costs in terms of money, time, distance and risks with the relation to supply and demand points. Distribution network design problems consist of determining the best way to transfer goods from the supply to the demand points by choosing the structure of the network such that the overall cost is minimized. The three layers, namely production centres (PCs), distribution centres (DCs) and customer points (CPs) are considered in the two-level FLP. The flow of maize from PCs to CPs through DCs is designed at a minimum cost under deterministic mathematical programming model. The four decisions to be made simultaneously are: to determine the locations of DCs (including number of DCs), allocation of CPs to the selected DCs, allocation of selected DCs to PCs, and to determine the amount of maize crop transported from PCs to DCs and then from DCs to CPs. The modelled problem generated results through optimization with respect to optimal location-allocation strategies. The results of the optimized network shows the improvement in costs saving compared to the manually operated existing network. The results show the costs saving of up to 18% which is equivalent to $2,910 thousand (TZS 2.9 billion). Keywords:    Optimization; Maize crop; Transportation network; Deterministic model; Facility locatio

Anticipating and Responding to Drought Emergencies in Southern Africa: Lessons from the 2002-2003 Experience

This paper examines the efficiency and effectiveness of emergency response in southern Africa through the lens of the 2002/03 food crisis in the region. The authors outline improvements in information and operational procedures needed to enhance the response to future events. They also discuss national and regional trade regime changes that would reduce the need for emergency response, and consider what lessons the 2002/03 crisis may have for the role of Strategic Grain Reserves (SGRs).food security, drought, emergency, Southern Africa, Food Security and Poverty, Q18,