How food insecure are residents in Malawi’s major cities? - Sheryl L. Hendriks and Leonard Mkusa

Prof Sheryl Hendriks and masters graduate, Leonard Mkusa recently published an article, "How food insecure are residents in Malawi's major cities?". The article focuses on urban food insecurity which remains poorly researched, depite the increasing threat of urbanisation on food security, specifically in Africa. 

Urbanisation continues to take place throughout Africa, and is one of the biggest threats to food security. This was evident during the 2007/08 food price crisis where vulnerable urban populations who mainly buy their food could not afford the increased food prices, resulting in food-related riots. Evidently, research on urban food insecurity remains important. 

This study compared the levels and severity of food insecurity in Malawi’s four major cities using data from Malawi’s fourth Integrated Household Survey (2016/17). Urban food insecurity was found to be relatively low and less severe in Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Zomba compared to published rural statistics. Lilongwe had the highest level of food insecurity. The majority of households experienced seasonal food insecurity four months of the year and spent three-quarters of their budget on food. Poor households with uneducated male heads with a high number of dependents, few income sources were most likely to experience food insecurity.

The conditions in Malawi's cities makes it difficult for people to afford their basic needs such as water and food. Interventions to improve the availability and accessibility of livelihood options for urban households would improve food security. One way in which this can be done is for the government to intensify skills development programmes for the unemployed and self-employed people which will provide them with better opportunities to earn a living, and improve the quality of labour. 

This article was published on Taylor & Francis Online on the 1st of April 2021. You can read the article here. 

Prof Sheryl L. Hendriks is the Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development, and a professor in Food Security.

Leonard Mkusa is a masters graduate from the Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development at the University of Pretoria.