2009

Input Subsidies to Improve Smallholder Maize Productivity in Malawi: Toward an African Green Revolution

Harawa, Rebbie; Banda, Clement; Keating, Michael; Wangila, Justine; Sachs, Jeffrey D.; Denning, Glenn L.; Kabambe, Patrick; Sanchez, Pedro A.; Malik, Alia; Zamba, Colleen; Magombo, Chrispin; Nkhoma, Phelire; Flor, David Rafael

In Malawi, recent success with input subsidies highlights how pro-poor public investments in maize productivity improvement can be made cost-effectively. This essay examines the circumstances, results, and implications from the 2005–2006 and 2006–2007 national input subsidy programs, and describes the experience of more intensive support undertaken by the Millennium Villages Project (MVP) in one district of southern Malawi.