Population Issues in Malawi

Malawi is endowed with a diversified natural resource base, including some of the most fertile soils for agricultural use in Southern Africa, closed forest resources covering about 30 percent of the land, abundant water resources and remarkably diverse flora and fauna, of which the uniquely rich fish resources stand out. It has a tropical climate characterized by variable temperature, rainfall and relative humidity. If properly utilized, Malawi’s natural resources can provide the basis for sustainable socio-economic development. However, they are subject to increasing pressure due to poverty and lack of environmental awareness which are both as a result of population growth. The result is increased degradation of the environment, with significant loss of soil fertility, soil erosion, serious deforestation, water depletion, pollution and loss of biodiversity. The fragile state of Malawi’s environment poses critical challenges to both human development and economic growth (state of environment and outlook report, 2010).
According to the 2008 census, Malawi’s population has tripled since 1966, reaching 13,077,160 people (GOM, 2009). This is likely to continue to increase as a result of intrinsic population growth, the rate of which is estimated at 2.9%. The population density is 139 persons per km², having increased from 59 per square km2 in 1977: this makes Malawi one of the most densely populated countries in Africa .Thus this essay looks into population issues (fertility rate, age distribution and family size and composition) and their impacts on food security and the environment.
Thomas Robert Malthus was the first economist to propose a systematic theory of population. He articulated his views regarding population in his famous book, Essay on the Principle of Population (1798), In Essay on the Principle of Population Malthus proposes the principle that human populations grow exponentially (i.e., doubling with each cycle) while food production grows at an arithmetic rate (i.e. by the repeated addition of a uniform increment in each uniform interval of time). Thus, while food output was likely to increase in a series of twenty-five year intervals in the arithmetic progression 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and so on, population was capable of increasing in the geometric progression 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, and so forth. This scenario of arithmetic food growth with simultaneous geometric human population growth predicted a future when humans would have no resources to survive on.
The Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC) conducted an update assessment in October 2012 as a follow up to the findings of June 2012 (Malawi VAC June 2012 Report, Bulletin No. 8, Volume 1). The update analysis projects that the number of vulnerable population has in-creased from 1,630,007 to 1,972,993 people, representing a 21% increase (342,986 people). The total population would now require 84,811 MT (up from 75,394MT) of maize equivalent with a total cash value of MK6.7bn ( about US$ 21,269,271) Just as Malthus predicted the current population increase is affecting food security. Fertility rate is an aspect of population which describes the total number of children a woman can give birth to in life through to her child bearing years (World Bank, 2003). The fertility of Malawi as of 2011was deemed to be at 5.6 and this high rate is what has seen the population of the country continue to increase over the years. One of the major causes of high fertility rates in the country is the occurrence of early marriages amongst young girls. This entails that the child bearing starts at a very young age meaning that the number of children a woman will have in her life is high. Another factor is the culture of the ethnic groups in the country. In most cultures of Malawi, women are encouraged to marry at such a young age which increases the possibility of them having a lot of children in their family. Local cultures also value children, and some cultures consider children as wealth, thus those with more children are wealthier. This in the end leads to families having more children as encouraged by traditional beliefs.
The high fertility rates in Malawi are also as a result of lack of contraception in most families. Most families in Malawi do not use contraception methods because of the lack of knowledge on family planning. The other problem is the access to medical facilities which can offer the necessary information on contraception and family planning. Most people in the country are not located close to hospitals and clinics as a result such relevant information is absent throughout their lives and this consequently results in the woman bearing more children. The fertility in the country is mainly considered to be high because most of the population is comprised of girls within the age of 18, which is within the childbearing ages (SOER, 2012). The high fertility rates have an impact on the environment as well as food security.
The high fertility rates affect food security within the households and of the nation as well. The high rate means that the number of children that a woman might bear is high hence increasing the demand for food. Households will need to adjust their spending on food or farming if new children are born so as to provide adequate amounts. Therefore the efforts for the family to be food secure are undermined if there are possibilities that more children will be brought into the family. To the country’s food security, this means that there is need to have more foods available in the markets which can be saved in anticipation of such scenarios. However, considering the economy of Malawi and the amount of farming space available to people, the food security situation at household and national level is poor, hence the high fertility is a threat to food security.
The environment in Malawi is also affected by the high fertility rates. This is so in a way that, high fertility rates means that the population will likely increase thus more pressure is on the environment to support it. Considering that most people in Malawi are poor, the result is a great level of dependence on natural resources for food, energy, water and other household materials. This means that forests, grasslands and protected areas may encroached and cleared for purposes of settlement and agriculture. The result of this is habitat destruction, loss of biodiversity and land degradation. High fertility rates will result in an increased pressure on the environment hence the country runs the risk of facing environmental degradation as another challenge to address in order to improve living standards of its citizens.
Age distribution is the frequency of different ages or age group in a given population. It refers to the distribution or the number of individuals that are pre-reproductive, reproductive and post-reproductive .It provides the distribution of the population according to age. Information is included by sex and age group.Age structure is useful in understanding and predicting population growth. For instance, if you know the age of first reproduction and reproductive strategy of a population, then you can predict future population growth patterns based on age structure data.
If most of the individuals in the population are below the age of first reproduction, then you can predict that in the near future, the population is likely to grow. However, if most of the individuals are beyond reproductive age, then you can expect the population to shrink. Therefore, from the 2013 estimates, the higher percentage is on the 0-14 years which is an age group which is not productive as far as development or economic importance is concerned,(the non productive age group also includes the 2.7% of the 65 years and over and also large proportion of the 55-64 years which makes up the 3.6% of the population as a rapidly aging population provides insufficient labor which is a major factor of production) (GOM,2006).
This entails that the larger proportion of the environment is dependent and as a result they will be risk of being food insecure the reason being that the producers are out numbered and they might not be able to satisfy the food requirements of the larger proportion thats making the population more vulnerable to food insecurity issues. Consequently, the age structure of this population will affect a nation's key socioeconomic development. Inorder to satisfy the consumption requirements of these dependent non–productive group, the highly productive age structure might resort to other unsustainable farming practices due to less land for cultivation due to the growing population that are likely to result in environmental degradation i.e. land degradation. The long term impacts of this land degradation will consequently result in food insecurity issues within house holds, regions or even at a national level.
While a youthful population represents the potential for a large labour force in the future, jobs must be available to avoid plunging more people into poverty. Low levels of education, lack of productive skills, and high rates of unemployment in Malawi result in limited opportunities for young people. Only 12 percent of those ages 14-17 attend secondary school (Nampota, 2009).

Family size describes the number of people that are part of a household and many large families in Malawi are prone to poverty but family sizes and composition vary from household to house hold and will greatly determine the type of family. The close links between poverty and food insecurity in Malawi can be explained by a variety of factors. Around 85% of the populations work in agriculture, the majority being smallholders producing first and foremost maize for home consumption. However, intense population pressure means that the average farm holding for smallholders is less than 0.8 Hectares. Even with good maize yields, this is inadequate to produce enough food to feed the average family throughout the year. Reliance on rain fed agriculture with an increasingly variable single season rainfall, plus extensive soil degradation over the past two decades, means that maize productivity has been declining as has maize production per capita. This has translated into declining calorie intake per capita. For example, between 1979 and 1989 maize production per capita fell from 244 kg/per capita to 193 kg/per capita whilst maize consumption fell from 220kg/per capita to 163 kg/per capita (Sahn et al 1990). Low productivity is compounded by the high cost of imported fertilizer, particularly since the removal of the fertilizer subsidy in 1994/95, making it unaffordable to many farmers. The extremely low levels of purchasing power in Malawi, poorly developed marketing systems and limited export potential make rural livelihood diversification difficult for most of the rural poor. Hence they are caught in a maize poverty trap, unable to move beyond subsistence maize
Production and constantly facing the threat of food shortages. Most families in Malawi fall in the category of extended families usually comprising of parents, children grandparents, uncles and other relatives living together. Large families will demand a lot of resources in order to satisfy their need for food and shelter hence the more the pressure on the environment. As said most Malawians depend on natural resources for their daily needs because of the economic status, therefore families with a large number of people will require abundant resources in order to meet their needs. For instance; there will be need to construct large or many houses so as to accommodate the household members re space is this will mean more space is required but also for food to be adequate there will be a need to expand the farmland since most ,Malawians depend on subsistence agriculture. These will mean more space of land is required hence the result may be clearing of forested areas and cultivation on marginal lands which is risk to the environment. This is so because the pressure on the environment is going to be high.
Large families demand large amounts of food in order for everyone to be fed whether purchased or produced through agriculture as is the case with most Malawian households. When food consumption is high it means that more food will need to be produced in order to cater for the demand in the country. The number of extended families in Malawi is high hence they require more food. The challenge that this has to the food security in the country is that with many extended families more food will be needed for direct consumption and storage of which considering the average land holding sizes is almost impossible for the households alone. Even if the country may record large food crop harvests in a year the challenge is question posed is that can Malawi afford surplus which can be stored and used in times of emergencies which are characterized by high demand for food to be available. It is also mostly a challenge to the food security at household level because most Malawian families do not have enough land to produce food for consumption which can be considered adequate. The composition of most families in Malawi is in such a way that the father is the breadwinner hence he is responsible for ensuring that the household has the required materials to support their lives. This burden is further increased in large families because the number of people to provide for is high. This becomes a huge responsibility which one person cannot sustain in order to provide sufficient quantities of food for the large family especially where food is purchased rather than produced. For farming households the pressure is also high because the one who provides for the family has to obtain enough resources/ income to purchase inputs for food production such as fertilizers, seeds and labour.
Even though formal primary schooling in Malawi is free, large families are unable to afford the necessities needed for their children to attend school such as clothes hence resulting in high rates of school dropouts. The importance of educating all people, in order to achieve sustainable development and poverty reduction, is highlighted by Malawi development goals number two. Further, an educated populace would contribute to the achievement of the rest of the MDGs including ending poverty and hunger, gender equality, reduced infant and maternal mortality rates, combating HIV and AIDS, achieving environmental sustainability and achieving global partnerships. School drop has a two-fold effect on the environment. First, dropout reduces the number of students who have access to environmental education through formal schooling. Secondly, drop outs rely on the environment for survival through low-skilled, natural resource based employment (such as selling charcoal).

Large families also affect the environment in various ways. Pressure on land and water resources in order to maximize yield to meet the meet the dietary needs of each and every member of the family leads into environmental degradation, land resources are exhausted due to poor agricultural practices such as cultivating on steep slopes and river banks and over application of inorganic fertilizers which pollutes the soil and ground water reserves and in cases of soil erosion the polluted soils are carried off to water reservoirs, polluting water bodies such as rivers in the process. This in turn affects aquatic organisms and causes eutrophication .Deforestation may also take place in search of fuel wood to meet the energy demands of the large family.

Reference
Government of Malawi (2006). Malawi Growth and Development Strategy, 2006–2011, Ministry of Development Planning and Cooperation, Lilongwe.

Government of Malawi (2009). Second National Communication to the UNFCCC, Environmental Affairs Department, Lilongwe.

MALAWI Vulnerability Assessment Committee (2012). October 2012 Update, Bulletin No. 8 Volume 2

Sahn, D., Arulpragasam, J. and Merid, L. (1990), Policy Reform and Poverty in Malawi: A
Survey of a Decade of Experience. Cornell Food and Nutrition Policy Program, Monograph

Malawi State of Environment and Outlook Report (2010), Environment for Sustainable Economic Growth
Nampota D.C. (2009). Supporting out-of-school children and youth through non-formal education in Malawi. In Preece J (Eds.) (2009) Nonformal Education, Poverty reduction and Life
Enhancement: a comparative study, Gaborone.

Thomas Malthus (1798), An Essay on the Principle of Population, as it affects the Future Improvement of Society. Electronic Scholarly Publishing Project. London

World Bank (2003). Memorandum of the President of the International Development Association and the Executive Directors on a Country Assistance Strategy of the World Bank for the Republic of Malawi, Report No. 25906 MAI.

UNIVERSITY OF LIVINGSTONIA LAWS CAMPUS (SCIENCE DEPARTMENT)

TO : MR R.V.W. Chibwe (The dean of pure and applied sciences)

FROM : Wakisa Nkuna (EVM 11/10/3) : Zione Sinkelea Matemba(EVM 11/8/3)

Course : Household environment management (EVM 4801) Task : population (fertility rate, age distribution, family size) issues in Malawi&their Impact on food security and the environment

Due date : 31 October 2014