Essays On The Impact Of Farm Input Subsidies On Farm Households In Malawi

Farm input subsidies are assumed to improve agricultural production and productivity for small resource poor farmers in developing countries by promoting the use of improved farm inputs, mainly inorganic fertilizers and hybrid seeds. This is expected to contribute to increased income from produce sales, improved food security at household and national levels, and consequently, contributing to poverty alleviation. Limited existing empirical evidence on the impact of farm input subsidies on food marketing, household welfare and migration suggests marginal effects. This thesis contributes to the existing literature by analysing the impact of farm input subsidies on farm households' maize market participation, welfare and migration by using the most recent nationally representative integrated household panel survey data for Malawi of 2010 and 2013.

This thesis uses the quantity of subsidised fertilizer the household redeemed to measure the impact of farm input subsidies. Different indicators and empirical models from the ones used in the existing literature on food marketing, household welfare and migration effects of farm input subsidies are used to explore more empirical evidence.

The main findings are that farm input subsidies increase farm households' market participation and food security; and reduces household members' migration. The results on market participation indicate that subsidised fertilizer increases both farmers' maize market participation as sellers and quantities they sell. On migration, subsidised fertilizer reduces rural to urban and rural to rural migration of household members. While on household welfare, the results suggest that subsidised fertilizer increases available per capita calories per day, household's months of food secure, and probability of being food secure from own production of cereals and legumes, but has statistically insignificant effects on household annual consumption expenditure.