This document proposes a zonation scheme to guide agricultural development planning in Malawi based on its agro-ecological diversity. It involves categorizing districts into six agricultural development domains based on agro-ecology, market access, and population density. More detailed crop suitability maps would then identify suitable areas for specific crops. The scheme aims to spatially target programs and investments to promote commercial agriculture. It could help identify expansion areas, constraints, and guide private sector investment. Further evaluation and refinement of the approach is needed before integrating it into agricultural planning.

1. Identifying spatial zones to guide
agricultural development planning in
Malawi
Todd Benson, Athur Mabiso, and Flora Nankhuni
New Alliance Policy Acceleration Support: Malawi (NAPAS:Malawi) project

2. Agricultural planning and Malawi’s
geographic diversity and complexity
• Malawi has significant agro-ecological diversity
– Farmers in Malawi have developed a variety of farming
systems to exploit the diverse combinations of local
agricultural resources
– Each farming system has a comparative advantage for
production of specific set of commodities
• As a result, any agricultural policy or program using a
single technical approach to improving productivity or
farm profitability will fail in many places
– In designing agricultural development policies, geographic
diversity of Malawian agriculture needs to be considered

3. Zonation scheme for agricultural
planning in Malawi
• Aim is to guide strategic thinking on where specific investments
could best be placed across Malawi to promote increased
commercialization of agricultural production
• Scheme should reflect spatial variability both in agricultural
productivity and in the profitable commercial opportunities
available
– Productivity primarily determined by agro-ecological factors
– Profitability primarily determined by access to specific markets
• In developing the agricultural zonation scheme, interested in:
– whether an agricultural commodity can be produced in an area, and
– whether farmers there will consistently be able to produce the
commodity in a profitable manner

4. How an agricultural zonation scheme
might be used in planning
• Spatial targeting of development programs in agriculture,
rural transport, and market infrastructure
• Guiding location of private investment in agriculture
– Primarily through public sector planners identifying where
incentives can best be placed to most profitably attract such
investment
• Identifying potential areas of expansion for commercial crop
production, particularly high-value crops
• Examining the current binding constraints to increasing the
scale of commercial agriculture in an area
– Particularly constraints that may be solved through public action
and investments

5. Approach
• Two levels to zonation scheme described here
1. At higher, more general level, establish agricultural
development domains for Malawi
• Districts categorized by three factors:
a. General agro-ecological potential
b. Physical access to markets
c. Population density
2. Thereafter, extend analysis to more local scale by
considering specific agro-ecological suitability of an
area for production of a commodity
• Using detailed crop suitability maps for Malawi

6. Agricultural development domains
• Incorporate information on determinants of
agricultural development potential
– Particularly for increased agricultural
commercialization
• Keep it simple
– If bring in too many factors into consideration, will
be difficult to use in establishing strategic
objectives for agricultural development

7. Three spatial data layers for
agricultural development domains

8. Aggregate data to district level

9. Intersect data layers
to define agricultural
development domains
• Different agricultural
development potentials
for the different domains
– Different agricultural development
strategies should be developed for
areas found in different domains
– Common general strategies
possible for areas in same domain

10. Six domains resulted
• For district level analysis, six development domains resulted
– Out of 12 potential domains
• Based on intersection of three agro-ecological zones; two market access
zones; and two population density zones
– Several null categories results from intersection of factors
– If used alternative spatial unit of analysis to district, would likely obtain
different number of domains
Poor market access Good market access
Low
population
density
High
population
density
Low
population
density
High
population
density
Lower Shire valley 2 districts
Lakeshore & Upper Shire valley 7 districts 2 districts
Mid-altitude plateau 7 districts 3 districts 7 districts

11. Bringing in more detailed, sub-sector
specific spatial information
• The development domain zonation aids in strategizing
on agricultural development options
• However, once broad outline of spatially-informed
agricultural development strategies is in place, sub-
sector specific analyses are required
– To determine the design of actions to be taken
– Draw upon a considerably broader range of both spatial and
non-spatial data

12. Crop suitability maps from Land
Resources Evaluation Project (LREP)
• For planning crop-related investments, LREP crop
suitability maps are important information source
• LREP carried out by Ministry of Agriculture and FAO between
1988 and 1992
– Involved relatively detailed mapping of the soils and
agro-climate zones of Malawi
• ‘Land units’ then identified from unique combination of soils
and climate characteristics
– Suitability analysis done for each land unit across
Malawi for production of specific crops and tree species
• 43 crop x management regimes; 16 tree species

13. Suitability maps for pigeonpea production,
Blantyre ADD
• Improved crop
management
increases the
suitability level for
production of
pigeonpea in many
areas of the ADD
• Also expands the
area over which
the crop might be
produced

14. Suitability maps for soyabean production,
Blantyre ADD
• Blantyre
Agricultural
Development
Division (ADD)
somewhat more
suited for
pigeonpea than for
soyabean
production

15. Examples of how detailed spatial information
can be used in agricultural planning
1. Use crop suitability analyses to determine, for example,
whether production of alternative crops might merit closer
investigation in a target area
– Critical to couple this information with findings from commodity-
specific market and value chain studies
– Planners then would determine whether target farmers might
profitably produce alternative crops and how they would market them
2. To foster increased investment in specific value chains,
planners could use the suitability analyses to assist investors
determine from where they might source the commodity
• If development aim is increased commercialization of
agriculture, complementary market and value chain studies
needed for use with this agricultural zonation information

16. Next steps
• Presented an approach to developing a zonation scheme for
agricultural planning purposes
• This approach and zonation scheme that resulted should now
be evaluated by experts; schemes should then be refined
– Qualitatively appraise their value for development planning
– Quantitative assessment of how the zones are correlated with observed
development outcomes
• Then, the agricultural zonation scheme that best informs
possible approaches to address the agricultural development
challenges Malawi faces should be brought into agricultural
planning discussions within government