Determinants of Land Rent and Food Security in Malawi: A Partial Spatial Panel Approach

Agricultural land remains a key agricultural production factor, crucial for attaining food security. Nonetheless, different assessments reveal persistent hunger levels across space and time in Malawi, despite access to and ownership of land among rural farming households. This study used the Integrated Household Panel Survey balanced dataset for 2016 to 2019 and sampled 1,147 rural maize farmers to determine agricultural land rent factors and its effect on food security. The study employed a Spatial Durbin model (SDM) and Spatial Auto Regressive model (SAR) to determine agricultural land rent factors and food consumption score in a spatial framework, respectively. The study further estimated Multivariate Probit (MVP) and Conditional Mixed Process (CMP) to account for unobserved heterogeneity, endogeneity and self-selection. Empirical findings revealed spatial dependence in land rent and food security. Renting-in and renting-out land was spatially clustered in the central and southern region; while self-owned land clustered in the northern region. Renting-in land directly increased food consumption score by 28.61% in the same location and 11.03% in neighboring locations in panel assessment. Notably, self-owned land associated with low food consumption score by -32.8% in the same location and -12.5% in neighboring locations. Southern region had the lowest food consumption score, followed by central region, then northern region. The findings propose for regional specific interventions that address specific regional food security vulnerabilities.