Efficient markets may determine self-sufficiency at the micro level for farmers

Watching dedication of farmers and their enthusiasm as they tend their gardens in various parts of the country, refreshes my mind as the psalmist says "like a tree planted by a river bank." Well, if you have seen a Mthethe tree (Acacia polyacantha) growing by a river bank you may picture what it mean. It is always a beautiful scene to look at. This is usually the case for many first time farmers or even experienced farmers when they have adopted a new crop and are inspecting their fields. Each farmer, even subsistence with less than a hectare of land thinks of enough food for his household and some level of surplus to sell and make money.

Farmers grading CG 7 groundnuts before planting in Kapiri, Mchinji; Farmers walking in a red Beans garden in Nandzikhale Dedza; An Irish potato field in Bembeke, Dedza. They need efficient markets.

Starting with first time farmers, I will recall my first experience in venturing into farming. My personal motivation came from an early exposure to farming from my mother, who I would describe as very resilient and hardworking woman I have ever encountered. My mother, at heart is an educator having been a primary school teacher for over 35 years. However, from when I was little, she would take my elder brothers and sisters to the garden. Of course being the youngest, I would mostly play at the garden, although she would make me carry a hoe befitting my age of 5 and assign a few ridges for me to tend. People passing by, would say, "Akulimitsa ndikakubere komwe!" - "She is even making the one still being breast fed farm the garden!" The most joyous time for me in the season, was harvest time, because at the end of the day, my dad would come with a hired pick up from around the neighborhood and the ride in the pick up was the most fun. A one tonne pick up filled with maize, and a young boy, clutch in between some elder men going to unload the maize to create a pile of maize at my parents' house.

Later in the year,  people within the neighborhood would come and buy 90 KG bags of maize. Later, on she would give some of the money to my father to buy fertilizer for the next farming season and with the remainder she would buy some gifts for all of us.  Although my elder brothers would get some money so that they decide what they want to do! So there, my lesson, you could transform the harvest into money. In that lesson, she demonstrated self sufficiency through farming up to her community based marketing.

In the case of my mum, she had a community market at that time, but this is not the case now that she is no longer actively farming at the same scale. However, over 20 years later, having adopted a similar practice of farming to some scale the ease at which my mum did the money conversion has been quite elusive and frustrating sometimes. Furthermore, interacting with small scale farmers reveals an even greater challenge of finding a market. Many people have documented the challenges of marketing crops in Malawi with details such as the report by Prof. P. Kishindo, that analyzed the rice schemes but also touched on the issue of marketing.

The premise of farming at least at small scale assumes sufficient yields for household consumption and sufficient enough surplus for economic gain and yet another level to continue the cycle of production.

So if this were a model then there would be self sufficiency as a function of total yields, amount consumed,  total sales. Of course one would argue, that if there was a self sufficiency model, then that would have to be mediated through availability of a market or some market related variable.

That there is market for most crops seems to be true, as most crops seem to eventually sale. However, the question of market needs to be assessed with a different question:

"What is an efficient market for most farmers in Malawi? How can it be achieved?"

 An efficient market that maximizes profit for the actual farmers. The current liberal market policies seem to demonstrate a level of exploitation for most farmers as the available market will remain inefficient and negatively influence self-sufficiency. A detailed mediation study would of course need to be conducted to tease the issue of an efficient market.

In the presence of free market forces, where the notion, has been to leave everything to demand and supply, it appears that demand and supply in the case of farmers seems to be artificially suppressed due to hurdles that farmers continue to face. These are not the absence of markets, but absence of efficient markets. In the era of free markets, Freakonomiks authors, seem to suggest that markets self define. Yes, they do, but unlike the example of Uber, where you can have a true demand and supply curve, I would argue that without proper infrastructure - regulation and physical networks, it is difficult to achieve this level of demand and supply particularly in resource constrained settings. Maybe, the market needs to be nudged.

In the analysis of P. Kishindo, he argues that in the case of rice schemes, markets existed and were close to the people. He also suggests that the change in policy towards a liberal market policy has resulted in break up of the formal market to more individual markets. Therefore suggesting that despite the opportunity that liberal markets has introduced, there is still a challenge in terms of the efficiency of those markets. Another observation made, in the report, though not characterized as corruption, is the tendency of guardians of free markets, giving themselves a bigger share of the market just because they can. They are in charge anyway!

Given the analysis above, mediation of self sufficiency through presence of markets in Malawi should consider the infrastructure of markets being socio-technical. On the technical aspect of the market, it needs to recognize the infrastructure - in the case of Malawi, an example is Admarc as public infrastructure, being available across the country. Despite the emergence of other organizations in the country, it remains the one with a national presence even in remote areas, with staff at those levels.

So what can be done or what should be done? Perhaps as part of privatization, this institution, should have allowed the current middle men to operate within its framework so that there is some level of coordination. Perhaps government, should allow middle men, but to avoid exploitation of farmers and still maintain the business of the farmers, the middle men should operate within Admarc. How, may this operate, well, Admarc with its national presence could easily become a national exchange, that would become an efficient market towards self-sufficiency.

Maybe just like the case of my mother, who used to achieve self sufficiency at her scale, many farmers on a larger scale should be given access to markets. They should be given not just markets, but efficient markets, so that their vision is truly seen  all the way to self sufficiency.