Malawi is one of the least developed countries, ranked 162 out of 175 in the Human Development Index (UNDP, 2009). According to the Integrated Household Survey (IHS) conducted by National Statistics Office (NSO) in 2011, 50.7 percent of the population in Malawi is living under the poverty line. Government of Malawi (GoM, 2007) indicates that 17 percent of the total population is ultra-poor. More than 91 percent of the poor live in rural areas. According to Conroy et al (2006) Malawi is largely a rural economy, nearly 85percent of the population lives in the rural areas and only 10 percent of the population is engaged in the formal sector employment. Almost half of the poor households are self-employed and agriculture is their predominant economic activity for the rural poor.
Several indicators highlight poverty in Malawi. These are acute and wide spread household food insecurity, (49 percent of the Malawian population is deemed food insecure), low literacy rate (35 percent of the population of Malawi is illiterate), low life expectancy and low quality of education. The Proportion of the poor
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The most basic definition of food security is the ability of individuals to obtain sufficient food on day-to-day basis. Internationally, Food security is defined as the ability of people to secure adequate food. Most researchers have defined food security as the assured access by all households at all times to adequate safe and nutritious food for a healthy productive life (Toit, 2011). Food security can be said to have two components namely; the ability to be self-sufficient in food production through own production and also accessibility to markets and ability to purchase food items (FAO, 2008). Food security is to some extent linked with the availability of income the households have but in Africa and there are a lot of inequalities including income (Berg,