Malawi financial markets and household food security, 1995

The questionnaire was administered in three rounds between February and December, 1995, to 404 households in 45 villages in five districts: Dowa, Nkhotakota, Rumphi, Mangochi, and Dedza. About half of the sample participated in credit groups by the Malawi Rural Finance Company, Malawi Mudzi Fund, MOWCACDSW’s credit program ‘Promotion of Micro-Enterprises for Rural Women’, and Malawi Union of Savings and Credit Cooperatives; the other half of the sample either previously participated in the former credit program of the Smallholder Agricultural Credit Administration or never participated in a formal credit program. Topics include household demographics; land tenure, agricultural production, and livestock ownership; asset ownership and transactions; food and non-food consumption; credit, savings, and gift transactions; wage and self-employment income and time allocation; anthropometric status of preschoolers and their mothers. The agricultural data cover the 1993/94 and 1994/95 seasons.