With the demise of the coffee industry, farmers turned to tobacco. This crop resulted in productive trade within Africa, including South Africa. It also developed trade routes with Portugal and the United Kingdom.[3]
The main cash crops for Malawi over the last century have been "tobacco, tea, cotton, groundnuts, sugar, and coffee".[4] Its arable land has been its greatest treasure allowing agriculture to experience highs and lows over the centuries. Malawi has been considered the "world's most maize-dependent country, except for Zambia"[5] throughout the 20th century.
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| Women farmers celebrate a bumper maize crop in 2007 un.org |
Although Malawi is a source of coal, it was unexploited during colonial times, therefore, early on, Malawians turned to farming rice, beans, sorghum, and of course, maize.[6] Over time, the state of arable land has gone through many changes. Leading up to the period of 1949, the nation experienced famine spurring a government plan to export maize thus creating a cash crop exporting 38,000 tons in 1955.[7] This surplus in maize export spanned approximately thirty years. Unfortunately, the high price of fertilizer coupled with inconsistent rainfall has continued to impede the ability for farmers to grow large crops.[8] After the 2007 maize bumper crop, Malawi was able to sell "more maize to the World Food Program of the United Nations than any other southern Africa country and exported hundreds of thousands of tons of corn to Zimbabwe".[9]
Although there continues to be a rise in population and debt, the past two years have seen tobacco once again become a major economy boosting export for Malawi.[10] Tobacco crops are contributing about "60 percent of Malawi's total export earnings...directly employing 12 percent of the population and also contributing 13 percent of gross domestic product".[11]
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| Malawi tobacco farmer surveying his crop http://mwnation.com/malawi-tobacco-exports-valued-650m-2012/ |
Currently, Malawi's biggest trade partners are "Canada, South Africa, and Belgium" and "a government 2013 annual economic report shows that overall external trade indicates that exports and imports both increased in 2012".[12]
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1 C. A. Baker, "Nyasaland, The History of its Export Trade," The Nyasaland Journal 15, no. 1 (January, 1962): 9, ¶ 3, accessed November 13, 2014, http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/stable/29545910:seq=3&uid=3739920&uid=2133&uid=2134&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21104531124031.
2 Ibid, 12, ¶ 2.
3 Ibid, 15, ¶ 2.
4 Wikipedia, "Agriculture in Malawi," accessed November 12, 2014, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_Malawi, ¶ 1.
5 Ibid, ¶ 16.
6 Ibid, ¶ 2.
7 Ibid, ¶ 9.
8 Ibid, ¶ 37.
9 Ibid, ¶ 43.
10 Dumbani Mzale, "Malawi Tobacco Exports Valued at $650m in 2012," mwnation.com, (August 29, 2013), accessed November 13, 2014, http://mwnation.com/malawi-tobacco-exports-valued-650m-2012/, ¶ 1.
11 Ibid, ¶ 4.
12 Ibid, ¶ 10.
