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Cash crop liberalization and poverty alleviation in Africa: evidence from Malawi

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  • Winford H. Masanjala

Abstract

This article uses the case of burley tobacco liberalization in Malawi to investigate the efficacy of cash crop liberalization as an instrument for poverty alleviation in sub‐Saharan Africa. The principal justification for cash crop liberalization is that markets allow farm households to increase their incomes by producing that which provides the highest return to their productive resources and use the cash to buy consumption goods. Using a latent welfare model, we find that households that selected to grow cash crops had higher incomes than those that did not grow cash crops. However, we also find that due to the lumpiness and seasonality of cash crop incomes, higher household incomes, while increasing food purchases did not significantly affect per capita food intake. Irrespective of participation in cash crops, for much of the cropping season rural households seem to rely more on nonfarm income for expenditure and consumption smoothing.

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  • Winford H. Masanjala, 2006. "Cash crop liberalization and poverty alleviation in Africa: evidence from Malawi," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 35(2), pages 231-240, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:agecon:v:35:y:2006:i:2:p:231-240
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1574-0862.2006.00156.x
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    1. Diagne, Aliou & Zeller, Manfred, 2001. "Access to credit and its impact on welfare in Malawi:," Research reports 116, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
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    1. Arrouna Keita, 2024. "Public Agricultural Expenditure Efficiency and Food Security in Sub-Saharan African Countries: Cash Crops or Food Crops?," Working Papers 2024.17, International Network for Economic Research - INFER.
    2. Embaye, Weldensie T. & Bergtold, Jason S. & Schwab, Benjamin & Zereyesus, Yacob A., 2018. "Modeling Farm Household’s Productivity under Inseparable Production and Consumption decisions," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274226, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    3. Pierre C. Bitama & Philippe Lebailly & Patrice Ndimanya & Philippe Burny, 2020. "Cash Crops and Food Security: A Case of Tea Farmers in Burundi," Asian Social Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 16(7), pages 1-81, July.
    4. Luisito Bertinelli & Arrnaud Bourgain & Elisabeth Kempter, 2025. "“From fields to frontiers” - Cash crop price shocks and migration intentions in rural Africa," DEM Discussion Paper Series 25-03, Department of Economics at the University of Luxembourg.
    5. Natalia Radchenko & Paul Corral & Paul Winters, 2018. "Heterogeneity of commercialization gains in the rural economy," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 49(1), pages 131-143, January.
    6. Salazar-Espinoza, César & Jones, Sam & Tarp, Finn, 2015. "Weather shocks and cropland decisions in rural Mozambique," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 9-21.
    7. Maru, Yiheyis & Sparrow, Ashley & Stirzaker, Richard & Davies, Jocelyn, 2018. "Integrated agricultural research for development (IAR4D) from a theory of change perspective," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 310-320.
    8. Tadesse Kuma & Mekdim Dereje & Kalle Hirvonen & Bart Minten, 2019. "Cash Crops and Food Security: Evidence from Ethiopian Smallholder Coffee Producers," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(6), pages 1267-1284, June.
    9. Tesfaye, Wondimagegn, 2022. "Crop diversification and child malnutrition in rural Ethiopia: Impacts and Pathways," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    10. Abubakari Ahmed & Eric Dompreh & Alexandros Gasparatos, 2019. "Human wellbeing outcomes of involvement in industrial crop production: Evidence from sugarcane, oil palm and jatropha sites in Ghana," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(4), pages 1-33, April.
    11. Mahamadou Roufahi Tankari, 2017. "Cash crops reduce the welfare of farm households in Senegal," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 9(5), pages 1105-1115, October.
    12. Ambler, Kate & Jones, Kelly M. & O'Sullivan, Michael, 2018. "What is the role of men in connecting women to cash crop markets? Evidence from Uganda," IFPRI discussion papers 1762, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    13. Raoul Herrmann & Ephraim Nkonya & Anja Faße, 2018. "Food value chain linkages and household food security in Tanzania," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(4), pages 827-839, August.
    14. Long Yang & Haiyang Lu & Sangui Wang & Meng Li, 2021. "Mobile Internet Use and Multidimensional Poverty: Evidence from A Household Survey in Rural China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 158(3), pages 1065-1086, December.
    15. Bazzana, Davide & Gilioli, Gianni & Simane, Belay & Zaitchik, Benjamin, 2021. "Analyzing constraints in the water-energy-food nexus: The case of eucalyptus plantation in Ethiopia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    16. Wencai Yang & Caiyao Xu & Fanbin Kong, 2022. "Does Non-Food Cultivation of Cropland Increase Farmers’ Income?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(12), pages 1-14, June.
    17. Jiliang Ma & Jiajia Qu & Nawab Khan & Huijie Zhang, 2022. "Towards Sustainable Agricultural Development for Edible Beans in China: Evidence from 848 Households," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-14, July.
    18. repec:ags:aaea22:335478 is not listed on IDEAS

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