Maize is Malawi’s main grain. Largely cultivated by farmers who grow crops or raise livestock on a limited scale—known as smallholder farmers—its shortage translates to hunger. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO), over 1.6 million smallholder farmers and subsistence farmers depend on maize production for their livelihood.
As a landlocked country in southern Africa with mostly barren land, the farmers of Malawi rely on imported fertilizers to grow crops. This import dependence has made the country susceptible to global market fluctuations, resulting in skyrocketing fertilizer prices well beyond the reach of most smallholder farmers. With its economy heavily dependent on rain-fed agriculture, which employs over 80 percent of the population, the country is vulnerable to external shocks, including climate-related ones.
However, Malawian farmers have embraced measures such as manure and the multiplication of fertilizer to boost their yields and build crop resilience to climate change. These low-cost methods can also improve the production of large- and small-scale US farmers despite supply chain disruptions.
Food Production Challenges
It is difficult for most households to produce enough food without fertilizer application in Malawi. Chapansi Njinga of Mtsiriza Village, Dowa District in Central Malawi, says she used to toil in vain in her crop fields without chemical fertilizer: “I can break my back to care for the crop but cannot get bumper yields without fertilizer even if we get good rains.”
“I wanted to abandon farming because it was too hard to afford.”
The 65-year-old woman used to harvest only five bags of maize from an area the size of a football field, an area that could potentially produce 60 bags.
Another farmer in Magaleta Village, in the Neno district in Southern Malawi, Hastings Chimwenje, notes that the effects of climate change have added frustration to his food production efforts. Without fertilizer, the father of five has never produced enough maize to take his family to the next harvesting season.
“I have had my crops wilting due to dry spells, and I could harvest only four bags that could only last for four months,” he says.
According to the UNFAO, in Malawi, a farmer loses up to 29 tons of fertile topsoil per hectare annually, leading to a 10 percent decline in farm output. The agency blames the heavy erosion on widespread deforestation.
Scarcity and soaring prices threatened farmers’ yields in the 2022 to 2023 growing season. By 2023, the price of fertilizer had more than doubled, with a 50 kg (110 lb) bag selling for $71. In the 2005 to 2006 growing season, the Malawi Government introduced the Farm Input Subsidy Programme, now dubbed the Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP), for smallholder farmers like Njinga to get subsidized fertilizer and improved seeds.
However, in its June 2022 report, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) states that local maize production in Malawi is still expensive. According to the IFPRI, “It costs MWK 3,236 (about $1.86) to turn fertilizer into a kilogram of maize, while that same kilogram of maize can be imported five times more cheaply….Rising prices of fertilizer and decreasing yield response rates will make the situation even worse.”
Njinga says the production cost was too high: “I wanted to abandon farming because it was too hard to afford.”
Meanwhile, Chimwenje notes that he could not imagine farming as a business with such huge production costs.
A Breakthrough to Build Resilience
In response to the rising costs of fertilizer, the two farmers, among others in the area, turned to manure, a move that proved to be worthwhile.
The farmers made the manure by mixing dung with ash, dead plants, urine, and water, turning 10 kg of chemical fertilizers into a 50 kg bag—enough for a half-acre maize field.
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They had bumper harvests this year despite the worsening effects of climate change, such as floods, erratic rains, and prolonged dry spells. Chimwenje harvested 30 bags of maize, enough for his family until the next season; Njinga harvested 58 bags.
Chimwenje is a member of Thanga la Ng’ombe Farmers’ Field School under the Evangelical Association of Malawi’s Strengthening Community Resilience to Climate Change initiative. The initiative helps about 840 smallholder farmers in Neno to achieve food security and engages farmers in manure-making and fertilizer multiplication, among other activities to enhance food production.
Shortages and high prices of fertilizer affect the entire food supply chain.
Chimwenje says that the manure has also built the maize’s resilience to climate change by enhancing soil fertility, texture, and moisture retention.
The manure also brought peace of mind to Njinga and the nearly 50 other households in Chivala Mtsiriza and Mtsiriza villages in Dowa. There, the Social Support for Resilient Livelihoods Project—an initiative of the COMSIP (Community Savings and Investment Promotion) Cooperative Union—is engaging farmers in climate-smart agriculture practices to enhance food and nutrition security
Njinga says, “I produced [a] 50 kg bag of the product, which was ready for use within 21 days and enough for a half-acre maize garden.”
Another farmer, Annie Mbewe, says the product also contributes to soil health: “We turned the chemical fertilizer into an organic one, helping us to have bumper yields and do farming as a business.”
In the neighboring district of Ntchisi in Central Malawi, Gladys Amos says the cut in production costs allows them to be more profitable. The farmers have started making the manure to sell to others at $14 per 50 kg bag.
Beyond Malawi
Shortages and high prices of fertilizer affect the entire food supply chain. In 2020, Russia and Belarus were the world’s top fertilizer exporters, accounting for nearly 20 percent of the three major types traded globally: nitrogen, phosphate, and potash. The United States was one of the main destinations for Russian and Belarusian fertilizer.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, fertilizer prices were already rising due to the pandemic’s supply chain disruptions and transportation bottlenecks, challenging the world’s ability to produce and deliver fertilizer. In August 2021, most fertilizer prices were already 25 percent above what they were in March 2020.
The Russian invasion drove up prices by over 50 percent from February to April 2022. According to the 2022 Commodity Costs and Returns data from USDA’s Economic Research Service, fertilizer costs account for nearly 45 percent of operating expenses for US wheat and corn farms compared with 23 percent for US soybean farms.
High US farm production costs show no signs of decreasing in 2024. Individuals and localities in the United States should not reduce their planted acreage of crops—but instead learn from Malawi farmers to use organic manure and multiply fertilizers using locally available resources.
As Febron Mwiba, a COMSIP Environmental and Social Safeguards officer, notes, the food and nutrition security feat the farmers in Malawi have achieved is courtesy of manure. According to Mwiba, “We want them to curb their households’ poverty by equipping them with skills to produce more food at low cost.”
