Agricultural Diversification Challenges and Opportunities in the Malawian Groundnut Value Chain

First release: January 31, 2023

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Groundnut is an important crop for Malawian agriculture. Its production promotes crop diversification beyond maize as the main food crop and tobacco as the main commercial crop. Groundnut has the potential to contribute to Malawi’s agricultural diversification agenda, for both food and export purposes. However, the groundnut value chain in Malawi faces challenges from input procurement to production and output marketing. These include limited access to improved seed, aflatoxin contamination, and limited access to structured markets. Policy options could focus on addressing issues that limit productivity and strategies for mitigating aflatoxin contamination considering their threat to food and nutrition security, public health, and access to higher-value markets. In this Policy Brief, we discuss key challenges and opportunities for the development of Malawi’s groundnut value chain.