Starter Packs

Despite repeated interventions by governments, donors and NGOs in recent years, food insecurity continues and developing countries are forced to rely on food aid again and again. The original idea of Starter Pack was to give a tiny bag of agricultural inputs – fertiliser and seed – to every smallholder farmer in Malawi. Although the programme did not work as originally intended, it was successful in achieving food security. The scaling down of the programme was a major contributor to the food crisis which hit Malawi (and other countries in Southern Africa) at the beginning of 2002. For once, we have a success story about how hunger can be tackled efficiently. This book assesses the case of the Starter Pack programme in Malawi, and whether it can be replicated elsewhere. It covers the practicalities of implementing such a large programme and the policy debates.