Drivers and perceived sustainability of soy-maize cropping among smallholder farmers in Central Malawi : a socio-technical and livelihoods analysis

Sammanfattning

Smallholder farmers in Central Malawi are increasingly growing soybean alongside maize in contexts of variable rainfall, unstable markets, and recurrent food insecurity. Soy-maize cropping is often promoted as a way to improve income, climate resilience, and livelihoods, but its sustainability is often assumed rather than examined directly once farmers adopt it. This thesis asks under what conditions soy-maize cropping moves from being adopted to supporting sustainable smallholder livelihoods, examining both what drives adoption and whether the practice is socially, environmentally and economically sustainable under increasing climate variability. Using a qualitative case study of Kasungu, Mchinji, and Lilongwe districts, the study draws on 30 farmer interviews with adopters and non-adopters, 14 stakeholder interviews, and a Food Insecurity Experience Scale survey. The data are analysed through the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) and a critical Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF). The findings show that soybean is not replacing maize, but is being added to a maize-centred farming system. Farmers use soybean income to support maize production, buy fertiliser, and meet household needs, a pattern the thesis identifies as a reinvestment cycle. Through the MLP, this is understood as a form of reconfiguration that strengthens rather than weakens the existing regime, conceptualised here as regime extension. The SLF shows that the benefits of soy-maize are conditional and uneven. Outcomes depend not only on household assets, but also on support from organisations and on the market channel through which farmers sell their crop, especially the difference between cooperative and vendor-dominated markets. Sustainability is therefore not an automatic result of adoption but depends on the production and marketing conditions that surround the crop. The thesis contributes to socio-technical transitions and critical livelihoods scholarship by showing that smallholder farmers are active agents in regime change.