The Impact of Environmental Factors on Rural Welfare and Development: The Malawi Experience

Thispaper attempts to show how factors in the environmental context of peasant production in Malawi have variously constrained household production. It is argued that while the Malawi peasantry is the least socio-economically privileged, they constitute, byfar, the largest section of the population. They are the major source of the national agricultural output. However,failure to achieve adequate levels of household production has seriously compromised national social welfare and economic development objectives. It is further argued that government policy is at the centre of many problems. Accordingly, the paper recommends public policy improvements in matters affecting the peasantry