Year Published
- 2008 (0)
- 2009 (8) Apply 2009 filter
- 2010 (0)
- 2011 (0)
- 2012 (0)
- 2013 (0)
- 2014 (0)
- 2015 (0)
- 2016 (1) Apply 2016 filter
- 2017 (1) Apply 2017 filter
- 2018 (1) Apply 2018 filter
- 2019 (0)
- 2020 (0)
- 2021 (0)
Research Topics
Populations
Types of Research
- Data Analysis (0)
- Literature Review (8) Apply Literature Review filter
- Portfolio Review (0)
- Research Brief (2) Apply Research Brief filter
Geography
- East Africa Region and Selected Countries (4) Apply East Africa Region and Selected Countries filter
- Global (0)
- South Asia Region and Selected Countries (2) Apply South Asia Region and Selected Countries filter
- (-) Remove Southern Africa Region and Selected Countries filter Southern Africa Region and Selected Countries
- (-) Remove Sub-Saharan Africa filter Sub-Saharan Africa
- (-) Remove West Africa Region and Selected Countries filter West Africa Region and Selected Countries
Dataset
- ASTI (1) Apply ASTI filter
- FAOSTAT (8) Apply FAOSTAT filter
- Farmer First (0)
- LSMS & LSMS-ISA (0)
- Other Datasets (7) Apply Other Datasets filter
Current search
- (-) Remove West Africa Region and Selected Countries filter West Africa Region and Selected Countries
- (-) Remove Sub-Saharan Africa filter Sub-Saharan Africa
- (-) Remove Finance & Investment filter Finance & Investment
- (-) Remove Southern Africa Region and Selected Countries filter Southern Africa Region and Selected Countries
- (-) Remove Poverty filter Poverty
- (-) Remove Agricultural Inputs & Farm Management filter Agricultural Inputs & Farm Management
- (-) Remove Global & Regional Public Goods filter Global & Regional Public Goods
- (-) Remove Countries/Governments filter Countries/Governments
- (-) Remove Health filter Health
Farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) use less fertilizer than farmers in any other region in the world. Low fertilizer use is one factor explaining the lag in agricultural productivity growth in Africa. A variety of market interventions to increase fertilizer use have been attempted over the years, with limited success. In the past several decades, Malawi has tried to alter that trend through a variety of innovative programs aimed at achieving national food security through targeted input subsidy programs. The best known of these programs is Malawi’s Starter Pack Programme. The Starter Pack Programme was amended twice into the Targeted Inputs Programme (TIP) and Expanded Targeted Inputs Programme (ETIP), and eventually replaced with the Agricultural Input Subsidy Programme (AISP). The efficiency and equity of the Starter Pack Programme and its successors have been the subject of debate. This report reviews the history, implementation, and perceived effectiveness of the various input subsidy schemes in the context of Malawi’s political economy. We find that AISP is credited with significantly increasing maize yields in Malawi. However, we also find that there are serious challenges facing the most recent input subsidy program, ranging from the rising cost of the subsidy to ongoing implementation struggles related to increased bureaucracy and corruption.