Land crisis and ‘green revolution’ practices trap millions of Malawi’s farmers

In Goliati village, Thyolo district, 18-year-old Tapiwa Ligomeka rations 2 kilos of maize meal for her family after her husband spent a day hustling casual market work. The household harvested 178 kg of maize in March from under half an acre and couldn't afford fertilizer, a common story across a country where maize occupies nearly 90% of cereal land.

Malawi's government projects a 2026 harvest of 3.3 million metric tons, still short of the 3.5-3.7 million ton national requirement, and expects up to 2.6 million people to face hunger before the next harvest. Between 3.8 million and 6.2 million Malawians have faced food shortages annually over the past four years, per government data.

A farm input subsidy launched in 2005 initially doubled output, but yields have stagnated near 3.6 million metric tons for two decades even as population grew past 21 million, with government's own reports citing corruption and procurement inefficiencies in the subsidy program. In Thyolo, colonial-era tea estates cover more than 1.4 million hectares, squeezing smallholders like Ligomeka onto plots averaging 0.4 hectares, while village chief Chimwemwe Matiza links the land shortage to rising child marriage, theft, and destructive sand mining.

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