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Beyond Technocratic Debates: The Significance and Transience of Political Incentives in the Malawi Farm Input Subsidy Programme (FISP)

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  • Blessings Chinsinga
  • Colin Poulton

Abstract

type="main"> The Malawi FISP resurrected debates about the role of subsidies in African agricultural policy. Recent literature has highlighted the social and political interests that influence the distribution of input-subsidy vouchers, often tending to reduce the efficiency with which such programmes contribute to poverty reduction. Taking the FISP as a case study, this article examines the political incentives that have driven programme implementation. Two streams of rents associated with the FISP were used to generate support for the first-term government of President Mutharika (2005–9), with very different implications for programme efficiency. One then stopped abruptly in 2009. The Malawi case demonstrates both the importance of political incentives in determining subsidy outcomes and how they can change dramatically over time.

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  • Blessings Chinsinga & Colin Poulton, 2014. "Beyond Technocratic Debates: The Significance and Transience of Political Incentives in the Malawi Farm Input Subsidy Programme (FISP)," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 32(s2), pages 123-150, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:devpol:v:32:y:2014:i:s2:p:s123-s150
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    2. Katengeza, Samson P. & Holden, Stein T. & Fisher, Monica, 2019. "Use of Integrated Soil Fertility Management Technologies in Malawi: Impact of Dry Spells Exposure," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 134-152.
    3. Sam Hamer & Jeremy Seekings, 2017. "Social protection, electoral competition, and political branding in Malawi," WIDER Working Paper Series 099, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Jayne, T.S. & Mason, Nicole M. & Burke, William J. & Ariga, Joshua, 2016. "Agricultural Input Subsidy Programs In Africa: An Assessment Of Recent Evidence," Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy Research Papers 259509, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security (FSP).
    5. Mwale, Martin Limbikani, 2022. "Unintended consequences of farm input subsidies: women’s contraceptive usage and knock-on effects on children," MPRA Paper 112689, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Sam Hamer & Jeremy Seekings, 2017. "Social protection, electoral competition, and political branding in Malawi," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-99, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. Erenstein, Olaf & Kassie, Girma Tesfahun, 2018. "Seeding eastern Africa’s maize revolution in the post-structural adjustment era: a review and comparative analysis of the formal maize seed sector," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 21(1).
    8. William J. Burke & Sieglinde S. Snapp & Thom S. Jayne, 2020. "An in‐depth examination of maize yield response to fertilizer in Central Malawi reveals low profits and too many weeds," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 51(6), pages 923-940, November.
    9. Helen Walls & Deborah Johnston & Mirriam Matita & Ephraim Chirwa & Jacob Mazalale & Matthew Quaife & Tayamika Kamwanja & Richard Smith, 2023. "How effectively might agricultural input subsidies improve nutrition? A case study of Malawi’s Farm Input Subsidy Programme (FISP)," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 15(1), pages 21-39, February.
    10. Nkhoma, Peter R., 2018. "The evolution of agricultural input subsidy programs: contextualizing policy debates in Malawi’s FISP," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 9(C), pages 12-17.
    11. Mwale, Martin Limbikani, 2023. "Do agricultural subsidies matter for women’s attitude towards intimate partner violence? Evidence from Malawi," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    12. Houssou, Nazaire & Andam, Kwaw S. & Collins, Asante-Addo, 2017. "Can better targeting improve the effectiveness of Ghana's Fertilizer Subsidy Program? Lessons from Ghana and other countries in Africa south of the Sahara," IFPRI discussion papers 1605, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    13. Asfaw, Solomon & Carraro, Alessandro, 2016. "Welfare Effect of Farm Input Subsidy Program in the Context of Climate Change: Evidence from Malawi," 2016 Fifth International Conference, September 23-26, 2016, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 246281, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).

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