Agricultural Input Subsidies
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Agricultural Input Subsidies This is an open access version of the publication distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivs licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact [email protected] This is an open access version of the publication distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivs licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact [email protected] Agricultural Input Subsidies The Recent Malawi Experience Ephraim Chirwa and Andrew Dorward 1 This is an open access version of the publication distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivs licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact [email protected] 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries © Ephraim Chirwa and Andrew Dorward 2013 The moral rights of the authors have been asserted First Edition published in 2013 Impression: 1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data Available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data Available ISBN 978–0–19–968352–9 Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials contained in any third party website referenced in this work. This is an open access version of the publication distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivs licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact [email protected] Acknowledgements This book emerges from longstanding concerns we have had about the prob- lems facing poor smallholder farmers in rural economies in Africa, and partic- ularly in Malawi, as with great resourcefulness and resilience they battle with limited and unreliable resources and support to better their livelihoods and the options for their children. A critical focus of our different research activi- ties has been on the roles of markets and governments in supporting poor smallholder farmers: to increase their production and incomes, to ensure affordable food security for themselves and others, and to expand opportu- nity and choice. In 2006 we began working together on an evaluation of the Malawi Agricultural Input Subsidy Programme, as it was then known. The programme was attracting international attention, with the New York Times and The Economist publishing hopeful and sceptical articles, respectively. We needed to review past experience with such programmes, understand new thinking and practice, and study different facets of the implementation and impacts of a large, complex, and politically sensitive programme. Six years later we are still engaged in this task: this book sets out much of what we have learnt so far. We hope it will be useful to policy makers, policy analysts, researchers, and students of agricultural and rural development who are concerned with the problems facing poor smallholder farmers in poor rural economies and considering, planning, or implementing agricultural input subsidies as a possible way of addressing some of these problems. We hope it will also be of value as a source of information on Malawian agricul- ture, rural livelihoods and agricultural policy. Many organizations and people have contributed to the work in this book. The Malawi Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and the UK Department for International Development in Malawi have over the years given us the opportunity to undertake this work and, with others, engaged with us, asked us challenging questions, and provided both access to critical information about the programme and the resources to study it. We are par- ticularly grateful to the AISP/FISP programme coordinators over the period (Alex Namoana, Idrissa Mwale, and Christine Mtambo), to Charlie Clark and v This is an open access version of the publication distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivs licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact [email protected] Acknowledgements colleagues in the Logistics Unit, to Teddie Nakhumwa and colleagues in DFID, and to David Rohrbach in the World Bank. We have benefi ted greatly from working with different colleagues on the 2006/7, 2008/9, and 2010/11 evaluation teams: Duncan Boughton, Massy Chiocha, Valerie Kelly, Thom Jayne, Mirriam Matita, Peter Mvula, Jake Ricker- Gilbert, Rachel Slater, Maxwell Tsoka, and the National Statistical Offi ce and Wadonda Consult fi eld team members. We are also indebted to many farm- ers’ and other respondents’ sharing of their time and information. The University of Malawi and SOAS, University of London, gave us time to write while on sabbatical, and our colleagues have then taken on extra responsibilities during our absences. The Future Agricultures Consortium provided fi nancial support for some specifi c parts of the work reported here: special thanks are due to Stephen Devereux, Rachel Sabates-Wheeler, Blessings Chinsinga, and John Thompson for their encouragement and insights. Frank Ellis and Peter Hazell provided critical but encouraging comments on drafts on a very tight schedule—leading to some signifi cant improvements in the text. Adam Swallow, Aimee Wright, and Jenny Townshend at OUP have encour- aged, guided, and helped us as novices through the task of publication. Many others have in different ways enabled us to write and publish this work. The views expressed and any omissions or errors are, however, our responsibility. We are grateful to Taylor and Francis for permission to include Figures 2.2, 4.1, 5.1, and 7.4 which are reproduced or adapted from Dorward and Chirwa (2011c). Finally, Ireen and Sam Ling have patiently suffered our pre-occupation with writing (and with the Malawi FISP over a number of years) and encouraged and supported us in taking on this project and seeing it through. Theirs is a very special part of this work. Ephraim Chirwa and Andrew Dorward Zomba, Malawi November 2012 vi This is an open access version of the publication distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivs licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact [email protected] Contents List of Figures xi List of Tables xiii List of Abbreviations xv 1. Introduction 1 1.1. Background: challenges in African agricultural development 1 1.2. Objectives and outline 7 1.3. Data and methods 8 Part I. Background 2. Agricultural input subsidies: changing theory and practice 15 2.1. Introduction 15 2.2. ‘Conventional’ input subsidies in agricultural development—theory and practice 15 2.3. Resurgent interest in input subsidies 21 2.4. Input subsidies’ successes, failures, and potential 23 2.5. Input subsidies’ roles and objectives 26 2.6. Design and implementation features 35 2.7. Conditions affecting effectiveness 38 2.8. Rethinking input subsidies: a conceptual framework 41 3. Recent African experience with input subsidies 46 3.1. Introduction 46 3.2. Ghana 47 3.3. Zambia Fertilizer Support Programme and Food Security Pack 48 3.4. Nigeria 51 3.5. Tanzania 52 3.6. Rwanda 55 3.7. Mali and Senegal 56 vii This is an open access version of the publication distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivs licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited.