Examining the Impact of Participatory Agroecology on Social Capital, Sustainable Land Management and Nutrition in Smallholder Farming Communities in Malawi
Abstract
Globally, hunger has been on the rise, with concentration among smallholder farmers who paradoxically constitute the majority of the world’s food-producing population. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) where smallholder agriculture dominates, the persistent failure of the agricultural system to address the food needs of the population has been linked to the interactive effect of multiple drivers, including climate change, environmental degradation, social inequalities, political instability and the increased alignment of smallholder farming towards an input-intensive model. Over the past few decades, most governments in SSA have resorted to an input-intensive production approach for improving smallholder agriculture, which emphasizes the use of synthetic inputs. In Malawi and other countries where this input-intensive model has been widely promoted, there is evidence of its counterproductive effects including the shrinking of the hitherto diversified food baskets of traditional farming communities, environmental degradation, erosion of traditional knowledge systems and breakdown of the beneficial social relations that characterize traditional smallholder agriculture. Amid these ecological and social contradictions, the Food and Agriculture Organization called for countries to align their agricultural sectors towards approaches that are ecologically sustainable and socially just. Agroecology is an approach to agriculture that focuses on addressing the ecological and social contradictions of the current food system. At the farm-level, agroecology emphasizes improved nutrient flows and energy use efficiency through ecologically friendly practices such as composting, agroforestry and legume intercropping as opposed to the use of synthetic inputs. Agroecology also has a social justice dimension which focuses on improving the social relations of production between farmers at the local level while addressing social inequalities at different scales in the food system. Despite gaining traction in the past few decades, there is little empirical evidence on the impact of agroecology in smallholder farming communities.
Using a two-wave survey data from a five-year agroecology intervention in Malawi (n=914 farming households, comprising 514 treatment households and 400 control households) and the metabolic rift as an overarching theoretical lens, this dissertation examined the impact of agroecology on farmer social capital, sustainable land management and nutrition. Difference-in-Difference (DID), mediation analysis and regression techniques were employed in data analysis.
Overall, findings from the DID analysis demonstrate a positive treatment effect of the agroecological intervention on social capital, production diversity and dietary diversity. Findings from the logistic regression analysis also show that farming households that received the agroecology intervention were significantly more likely to adopt crop residue recycling, composting, legume integration, mulching, agroforestry and integration of vetiver grass compared to households in the control group after controlling for demographic, socioeconomic and plot-level factors.
These findings demonstrate the multifunctional role of agroecology in smallholder farming contexts. Theoretically, the dissertation also illuminates contemporary understanding of the metabolic rift in the current global food system and agroecology’s potential to address key aspects of the social, ecological and individual dimensions of this rift. In the context of the ongoing pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals, these findings have practical implications for agricultural policy in Malawi and similar contexts in the Global South.