Basically smallholders are both protecting the level of their income and moving into cash
cropping to shift dependence from own production to greater dependence on the market. They
are to some extent diversifying out of subsistence production to increase the options open to them
in bad years.

 FEWS is just beginning to monitor the prevalence of different "survival systems" in
Malawi. Initial work, based on the November 1995 RaFSA survey, divides survival systems into
three categories: self-sufficiency methods; income generating activities; and coping strategies,
which involve social transactions, borrowing, selling of assets and consumption reduction. 18
EPAs primarily use self-sufficiency methods, 44 EPAs use income generating methods and 14 use
coping mechanisms. There is no obvious relationship between dominant survival system and
vulnerability to poverty, as even EPAs who depend on coping mechanisms have often coped for
decades and have well adapted lifestyles. The monitoring of survival strategies is ongoing and
may, in future, provide useful information about vulnerability to drought.

 The information on transitory household food insecurity is quite diverse, but two elements
stand out. Firstly, there is a strong link between transitory food insecurity and chronic food
insecurity. Households with resources can save in good years and liquidate assets and savings in
poor years. Secondly, for both better-off households and poor households the variety of coping
mechanisms and survival systems available are vastly increased and improved by effective
commodity and labour markets.

3 Market Liberalisation and Household Food Security

 Over the last ten years there have been a number of changes in the economic environment
which could be classed together under the general heading of market liberalisation. These have
had major implications for household food security.

* There has been a move away from administered prices for almost all commodities,
 including agricultural inputs, cash crops and maize prices.

* Restrictions on cropping patterns have been removed, allowing smallholders to grow a
 wider variety of cash crops, and i particular the highly profitable burley tobacco.

* There has been a major increase in the extent of private sector trade and a reduction in the
 importance of ADMARC.

 This has had a direct effect on the income earning opportunities for households,
particularly in the rural sector. It has also affected the relative prices households face for the
commodities they sell and purchase. This in turn affects cropping patterns and consumption
choices. Seasonal price changes in the private sector should create greater incentives both for
intra-seasonal storage in the private sector and on-farm storage.


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