SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This paper analyses the factors that influence access to agricultural input subsidies in Malawi. The results show that vulnerable households such as the poor and elderly-headed are less likely than other households to receive fertilizer coupons and receive less of the subsidized fertilizers. Households with larger parcels of land and those who sell part of their produce (commercialized) are more likely to receive coupons and also tend to acquire more fertilizers. Use of open meetings in the allocation of coupons tends to favour the poor and the poor receive more fertilizer compared with discrete of coupons. We also find a positive relation between participation in other social safety nets and access to subsidized fertilizer coupons, suggesting that households that participated in other social safety net programmes are not excluded from the input subsidy programme by virtue of benefiting from other social assistance programmes.