Cash crop estates versus smallholder food producers

Malawi is losing 2.8 percent of its forest cover every year and has the highest deforestation rate in the Southern African Development Community. "Forest resources are under enormous pressure from expansion of agricultural activities, because of an increase in the population. Many people cultivate in government-protected forests because they say they do not have land," John Ngalande, deputy Director of the forestry department, told IRIN. Forests in Malawi's northern region were now under pressure, as the southern region had lost almost all its green cover, he added. Few smallholder farmers have access to productive land and the situation is worse in the southern region where vast tea estates, growing cash crops such as tea and tobacco, have left the majority landless. Malawi's total land area covers an estimated 9.4 million hectares, of which 7.7 million ha is available for smallholder agriculture and estates. Estates occupy approximately 1.2 million ha and smallholder farmers have access to 6.5 million ha. The National Statistical Office estimates that 55 percent of smallholder farmers have less than one ha of cultivatable land - not enough to meet their basic food needs. Collins Magalasi, national coordinator of the NGO grouping, Malawi Economic Justice and Network, pointed out that many Malawians are experiencing food shortages because they do not have access to land to grow crops, and underlined the need for a land redistribution strategy. "Most of the districts in the southern region of the country are covered by big estates. If these estates were producing food such as maize, Malawians would not have been complaining of food shortages," he explained. Residents in the southern districts of Mulanje, Thyolo, Phalombe and Mangochi, home to some big estates, have complained that the lack of land was a contributing factor to food shortages. During a recent IRIN visit to Thyolo and Mulanje districts, residents called for government help in resolving the land crisis. IRIN found that people had encroached in the Thyolo Forest, a government protected area, to grow maize. One of the encroachers, Estere Bayeti, said, "Most of the land in the district is occupied by tea estates. People have nothing on which they can grow crops." However, Rafiq Hajat, executive director of the Institute for Policy Interaction argued: "There is enough land, only ... people are not using it sustainably. [The] majority are ignorant of the best agricultural practices and ... many are poor and cannot afford agricultural inputs. Arable land being used by commercial estates covers only six percent, while over 60 percent is used by rural farmers. The issue is how best to use the available land."