Does subsidizing legume seeds improve farm productivity and nutrition in Malawi?

Over the last two decades, most African governments have been implementing agricultural input subsidy programs (ISPs) aimed at increasing crop yields, and incomes, reducing hunger, nutritional insecurity, poverty. Although ISPs are popular policy interventions, it remains unknown whether they improve productivity of nutrient-dense crops such as legumes, dietary quality, child or adolescent nutrition. We address this gap by testing hypothesis that subsidizing legume seeds (SLS) improves farm productivity, To do this, we use decade-long nationally representative panel data from Malawi regression models with an instrumental variable approach to endogeneity. found SLS increases area planted crops, groundnut yield, gross value production, along production consumption (dietary) diversity, calories, micronutrient—vitamin A zinc—consumption. further is positively correlated weight-for-age Z-score but not height-for-age Z-score. These novel findings emphasize could be among key interventions malnutrition in Malawian small sector.