Background and Context

Maize, the main staple crop remains the domi-nant crop among smallholder farmers in Malawi. Smallholder farmers devote almost 70 percent of their land to maize cultivation, and maize availability in the country de nes the food secu-rity situation of the country. Smallholder agri-culture in Malawi has been characterized by low productivity, low technology and labour inten-sive, with maize mainly produced for subsis-tence consumption. The low productivity in smallholder agriculture has been attributed to loss in soil fertility, low application of inorganic fertilizers and traditional low technology rain-fed farming systems. The Malawi Agricultural Input Subsid