Agriculture, Food Security, and Nutrition in Malawi: Leveraging the Links

Although the Malawian food supply is shaped largely by trends in smallholder food crop production, Malawi’s decades-long focus on improving smallholder productivity has only moderately improved food security and nutrition outcomes. Indicators of household food insecurity and stunting imply that some Malawian diets are lacking in terms of quantity (total calories consumed), and most are lacking in terms of quality (sufficient calories derived from nutrient-dense foods, such as meat, fish, eggs, dairy, legumes, fruits, and vegetables). This report provides a series of primary and secondary data analyses that examine how Malawi can better leverage its smallholder agriculture sector to improve nutrition.