A Comparative Assessment  of the Impacts of Malawi  Farm Input Subsidy and  Irrigation Policies on Child  Nutrition Status

Chiwaula, Levison; Cassim, Lucius; Manja, Laston

A Comparative Assessment of the Impacts of Malawi Farm Input Subsidy and Irrigation Policies on Child Nutrition Status

Date

2023-07

Authors

Chiwaula, Levison

Cassim, Lucius

Manja, Laston

Publisher

African Economic Research Consortium,

Abstract

Farm input subsidy (FISP) and irrigation programmes are two of the top agricultural policy interventions that compete for resources in Malawi. Although pockets of information exist on the impacts of these policies, there is no study that compares the respective intervention impacts on child nutrition status to guide policymakers in the face of competing needs. Therefore, this study aims to fill this gap. Using data from the Fourth Integrated Household Survey (IHS4), an instrumental variables (IV) approach and quasi-experimental techniques of propensity score matching (PSM) were used to measure the impacts. The findings show that children from households that are beneficiaries of FISP have better nutrition statuses than children from non FISP or irrigation-practising households. However, the study fails to find a significant joint impact on child nutrition status, much less an individual impact, of irrigation policies, partly due to data limitations, which calls for a further, well-designed study to validate findings.