Malawi Agricultural Sector Wide Approach - A prioritised and harmonised Agricultural Development Agenda: 2011 -2015.

The ASWAp operates with the MGDS in the areas of agriculture, food security, irrigation and disaster risk reduction. The MGDS is the government’s overarching medium term strategy to attain the nation’s Vision 2020. The main thrust of the MGDS is to create broad-based wealth and reduce poverty through sustainable economic growth and infrastructure development. This is expected to transform the country from being a predominantly importing and consuming economy to a predominantly producing and exporting economy. It aims at improving food security, diversifying food production to improve nutrition at household level, and increasing agricultural incomes of the rural people. The ASWAp is, therefore, a priority investment programme in the agricultural sector and is based on the priority agricultural elements of the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS). It is also consistent with the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) under the umbrella of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). The ASWAp has three focus areas and cross-cutting issues in the following Focus Areas: a) Food security and Risk management, b) Agri-business and market development and c) Sustainable land and water management.
The ASWAp aims at increasing agricultural productivity, contributing to 6% growth annually in the agricultural sector, and emphasizes the following activities: Increasing maize productivity to attain food security, reduce the cost of food to the poor, and build food self-sufficiency at household and national levels; Diversifying food production to improve nutrition at household level; Managing risks to ensure food stability at national level; Promoting agro-processing for value addition and import substitution; Developing the domestic market for import substitution; Expanding the export market to increase foreign currency earning potential of the country; Generating technologies to increase agricultural productivity and to support agricultural diversification; Improving extension services and technical services to improve efficiency of production; Building capacities of the various public and private institutions implementing the ASWAp; Promoting good land husbandry practices for soil conservation and improving soil fertility; Developing irrigation systems and promoting efficient use of water; and Mainstreaming gender, HIV and AIDS in the ASWAp focus areas and key support services.
The Malawi Government (GOM) agreed with development partners to formulate the Agriculture Sector Wide Approach (ASWAp) as a means for achieving the agricultural growth and poverty reduction goals of the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS). The MGDS has targeted agriculture as the driver of economic growth and recognizes that food security is a pre-requisite for economic growth and wealth creation. The ASWAp, therefore, offers a strategy for supporting priority activities in the agricultural sector in order to increase agricultural productivity to make Malawi a hunger free nation, enable people access nutritious foods and increase the contribution of agro-processing to economic growth.