Mapping Market Prospects for Grain Legumes in Malawi

The report examines the question of where and how can multipurpose legumes be scaled for sustainable intensification of maize systems and what would the potential impacts be, in the medium-term, across the food system in Malawi? Research reported in the paper focused on one key aspect of the scaling question: will markets support broad uptake (scaling) of multipurpose legume cropping systems by providing robust growth in demand over the near-term future for these legumes? It used expenditure elasticities from the 2010/11 Integrated Household Survey (IHS) together with population (current and projected) data from the United Nations (UN) and scenarios on per capita income growth to evaluate alternative scenarios for future growth in demand for these products.