Promoting participation in oilseed value chains in Malawi: Who and where to target

In this Policy Note, we examine both household and spatial factors that may drive participation by smallholder farming households in oilseed value chains, focusing on those for groundnut, soyabean, and sunflower. Groundnut has been an important secondary crop within many smallholder farming systems across Malawi for several generations, used both for own consumption within the household and for sale. Soyabean and sunflower are more recent introductions and are primarily grown for commercial sale by both smallholders and commercial farmers. Annual production and yield levels for these crops in recent years are shown in Table 1.