Women’s off-farm employment improves household nutrition in Malawi

Improving rural nutrition remains a pressing development challenge across sub-Saharan Africa, where agriculture dominates livelihoods but diets often lack diversity and essential nutrients. In this context, women’s participation in off-farm employment may play a critical role in shaping household food consumption patterns. By generating additional income, women’s off-farm work can enhance households’ ability to purchase diverse and nutrient-rich foods, reduce reliance on subsistence farming, and strengthen women’s decision-making power over food choices. Despite these potential pathways, the extent to which women’s off-farm employment actually improves household consumption of calories and key micronutrients remains poorly understood. Here we investigate the link between women’s off-farm employment and household dietary quality in Malawi, using a ten-year panel dataset. Employing panel regression approaches, we find that women’s participation in off-farm work—especially in self-employment and wage employment—is positively associated with household consumption of calories and key micronutrients, including vitamin A, iron, and zinc. In contrast, casual labor (commonly known as ganyu in Malawi) shows no significant dietary effects. Our pathway analyses indicate that increased income from off-farm employment enhances consumption of calories and micronutrients from purchased foods, while reliance on own-produced food declines. These results highlight the potential of well-paying off-farm opportunities to improve nutrition, underscoring the need for policies that improve non-farm enterprise and wage employment for women in sub-Saharan Africa.