An investigation of pesticide and microbial interactions on coffee as a means of developing an IPM strategy for economically important coffee pests in small-holder farming systems in Malawi

The results in this report highlight the importance of coffee in the rural communities of northern Malawi, the recent changes that have occurred in the system and smallholder's desire to continue with the production of the crop. Economic analysis also indicates that coffee should remain an important element of the farming system, but that there are key production and marketing issues which need to be addressed if coffee cultivation is to be successful in this sector. These include: a) reducing the economic impact of coffee plant diseases and insect pests under the smallholder low input/output system b) development of a new sustainable credit system c) creating an enabling environment for the effective development of a competitive domestic marketing system including access to rural pulperies (wet factories) for private buyers. Whilst this project is principally concerned with the first issue, as the others fall outside its direct remit, they remain important for the successful uptake of the project's scientific outputs

The economics of social subordination : gender relations and market failure in the highlands of Papua New Guinea

This thesis is concerned with the causes and consequences of the market failure that is generated by the social subordination of women in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea (PNG). It is argued that the development impasse in PNG, noted by a number of observers, has its principle antecedents in the extreme economic and social discrimination facing women. Gender based discrimination occurs within the context of dualistic modes of social relations of production: (1) the pre- incorporation social order, which was patriarchal; (2) capitalist market exchange relations which followed the widespread introduction of cash cropping. These two modes combine to alter the price signals determined by the world market, and domestic pricing policy, at an intrahousehold level. That is individual incentives are not determined by world markets but by household power structures, in particular the pervasive nature of patriarchy; this provides the basis for gendered market failure in the Highlands of PNG. Market failure in the Highlands takes the form of the underallocation of labour and land to coffee production. This is a direct result of the poor labour returns that women receive; they receive around one-third of those of men. Women's returns are so low that their labour returns are higher in food production and they act as rational economic beings and apply more of their labour to this endeavour. Whilst behaving in a rational manner to the incentives they face, this must necessarily reduce household income levels because labour returns from food production are much lower than those associated with cof fee cultivation. Patriarchy creates an uneven pattern of intrahousehold distribution of coffee income, which generates perverse (non-efficient) individual incentives which lead to market failure. Additionally, the intrahousehold distribution of tasks is so uneven that many households face a 'female' labour constraint, particularly during the peak coffee harvesting period (flush). This reduces the ability of the household to respond to changing incentives, such as increased coffee prices. Poor economic incentives for women and socially determined labour constraints combine to create a vicious gendered circle of underdevelopment in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea

An Investigation of the Household Economy: Coffee Production and Gender Relations in Papua New Guinea

Using two years of intra-household data from one area of the Papua New Guinea Highlands this article examines the impact of gender relations on household coffee production. Poor relative labour returns for women and the unequal distribution of tasks within the household were found to exert considerable influence on the level of household success in cultivating coffee. The article concludes with the construction of a model linking the intra-household distribution of economic benefits, determinants of household resource allocation and underdevelopment.