Mitigation of Food Insecurity and Poverty: The Role of Integrated Agriculture Aquaculture (IAA) Systems in Malawi

Abstract

"Over the years, the paradigm to develop aquaculture as a stand-alone enterprise proved a failure in Malawi due to socio-economic status of the majority of Malawian farmers. Overall, 75% of families cannot feed themselves, producing on average, only 64% of their own food requirements. With the low per capita land holding of about 2 ha, the most commonly proposed solution would be intensification of land use e.g. adopting new crop varieties and applying fertilizers and pesticides. Unfortunately with the majority of farmers having a per capita income of about US $160/year, access to these technologies is limited. In this context, a shift towards more sustainable and durable farming systems in the form of integrated agriculture-aquaculture (IAA) spearheaded seems to significantly decrease the level of hunger and enhance the ability of smallholding farm families to survive droughts.

"Responding positively to the benefits of IAA the Malawi government National Aquaculture policy embraced IAA in the year 2000. This paper discusses how IAA improves farm diversification resulting in increased whole farm productivity, household income, and improved farm resilience to drought, with such an impact on lives of rural Malawian ns. IAA should be incorporated in policies that deal with food security and poverty issues."