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Rural development approach
Over three quarters of Malawi’s population live in the rural areas. Of greater importance, though, is the fact that the vast majority, almost 70 percent, of the poorest are also located in the rural areas. This is where there is economic stagnation.
The focus of my discussion is on the economic, social, institutional and structural requirements of the small-farm modernisation and on the exploration of the rural development and the alternative policies designed to raise levels of living in the rural areas. This approach is referred to as integrated rural development.
To begin with, life in the rural side of our country is pathetic. People grind out a meagre and inadequate existence in typical subsistence agricultural pursuits. They strive to obtain their families’ needs by tilling an inadequate piece of land or sell their labour for substandard wages to a commercial agricultural enterprise. Debts rather than profits are their normal fate such that the farming techniques they engage themselves in are rationally scaled to their level of disposable capital.
That is to say, the rural peasants prefer human and animal power rather than mechanised equipment; excrement rather than chemical fertilisers; traditional crops and seeds rather than experimental cultivations. As such, there is no social security so much so that all their decisions and actions impinge on their struggle for physical survival. Whenever these fail, they end up trading their own reserved property in exchange for little packs of food.
Unfortunately, many of these people have been bypassed or ignored altogether, by any economic progress that has been attempted or attained. Traditionally, people have felt that the role of agriculture in economic development is passive and only supportive.
Agriculture has been perceived to be more of a means to provide sufficiently low-priced food and manpower than the dynamic and leading industrial sector. No wonder, the thinking and behaviour of the subsistence farmer is viewed as irrational and backward.
It is about time the agricultural sector and the rural economy were dynamic and leading elements in any overall strategy for our country. This can be achieved through three main ways.
First is the introduction of mechanised agriculture to replace human labour. Where land is extensively cultivated and labour is scarce, mechanised agriculture has dramatic net effect on the volume of output per worker. For instance, one worker operating a tractor can accomplish in a single hour what would require hundreds of workers using traditional methods.
Second is the use of new agricultural technologies and innovations in farm practices. These are land-augmenting alternatives. They include the use of hybrid seeds, biological water control methods and chemical innovations. They improve the quality of existing land by raising yield per unit area. Improved seeds, advanced techniques of irrigation and crop rotation, the increasing use of fertilisers, pesticides, and new developments in veterinary medicine and animal nutrition represent major scientific advances in modern agriculture.
The foregoing methods are scale-neutral measures, which can be applied equally effectively on large and small farms. Furthermore, they do not require large capital inputs or mechanised equipment. They also are well suited for any geographical area and offer enormous potential for raising agricultural output.
Third is the issue of institutional and pricing policies. While the land-augmenting alternatives are scale-neutral in nature, it is noted with much concern that the social institutions and most government policies that introduce them into the rural economy are often not scale-neutral. Mostly, they serve the needs and interests of the small minority wealthy and powerful.
Therefore, the area of policy and strategy setting requires careful and prudent consideration without which can only turn these other developmental innovations to be anti-developmental. In other words, the public policies and social institutions should militate for the full and active participation of the small-scale farmer to alleviate poverty and raise agricultural output.
Another critical area calling for major improvement in policy issue relates to the pricing of agricultural commodities produced for local markets. Low prices have always been maintained despite outcry by farmers. They have been offered prices below free-market internal prices.
With farm prices so low and even below the costs of production, there is no incentive for the farmer to expand output or invest in a new productivity-raising technology. As a result, local commodity supplies continually fall short rendering the government to import thereby, straining their balance of payments situation which worsens foreign exchange and international debt crisis.
Therefore, to promote increases in agricultural production government must provide incentives for small and medium-sized farmers by implementing pricing policies that truly reflect internal market conditions.
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