Comparative Economic Advantage in Agricultural Trade and Production in Malawi

As part of the trade studies in eastern and southern Africa, this study was conducted to investigate the com-parative economic advantage in agricultural trade and production. The study was aimed at achieving the following specific objectives: (i) Evaluate the CEA of alternative agricultural production activities in the various agro-ecological zones, different technological levels and land tenure sys-tems in Malawi;(ii) Analyze the potential impact of removing the exist-ing price and policy distortions on the economic efficiency of the alternative productive uses of the country’s resources;(iii) Identify areas of policy, technology and institu-tional intervention to enhance economic efficiency and direct agricultural resources to their most pro-ductive uses; and (iv) Build the Malawi country data component needed for conducting the regional analysis of CEA and trade of agricultural commodities from southern Africa.