Fighting Disease:  Malawi

Increasing Food Production

The Carter Center began working in partnership with the Malawian Ministry of Agriculture to improve food security in 1999. Huge swings in Malawi's maize prices have been a major disincentive for farmers to invest in maize production, the country's staple food crop. The African food crisis in 2002, worsened by the drought that hit southern Africa, was partly to blame for this price fluctuation, and price swings have continued.

Maize accounts for half of the national cropping area in Malawi, the largest per capita producer of maize in the world. However, unstable market conditions already have driven large-scale farmers, who previously accounted for 25 percent of maize production, to end maize cultivation in the nation altogether.

The Sasakawa-Global 2000 Program worked with the regional Agricultural Development Division under the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation in six of the eight divisions to demonstrate that small-scale farmers across the country can make up for this shortage, achieving large yields with the use of fertilizer, drought-resistant maize, and other techniques. Read full text >