Ganyu Labour in Malawi and Its Implications for Livelihood Security Interventions – an Analysis of Recent Literature and Implications for Poverty Alleviation

The word ‘ganyu’ is widely used in Malawi to describe a range of short-term rural labour relationships, the most common of which is piecework weeding or ridging on the fields of other smallholders, or on agricultural estates. Ganyu is a crucial poverty issue in Malawi because: • After own-farm production, ganyu is the most important source of livelihood for most poor households – for some it is becoming even more important than own-farm production. • Ganyu is the most important coping strategy for most poor households in the crucial hungry period between food stores running out and the next harvest. • The need to do ganyu to obtain an immediate supply of food may conflict with own-farm production and therefore, while addressing an immediate crisis, can lock some households into a vicious cycle of food insecurity. • Low ganyu wage rates mean agricultural labourers do not earn sufficient incomes to invest in sustainable livelihood development. Despite the widespread practice of ganyu, and its importance to the poor, it is an under-researched component of the jigsaw that makes up the livelihoods of rural Malawians. This is a mistake, as ganyu is too important to the poor to be sidelined – it will play a critical role in future rural development strategies and has important interactions with the current debate about developing safety nets in Malawi. The paper discusses recent literature on ganyu and opens up a debate about various future scenarios and how different strategies may affect rural labour markets.