Johnny Ch Lok

New Farming Economic Society Johnny Ch Lok

?How does the tea agriculture sector affect the Malawi economy?Agricultural economics, study of the allocation, distribution, and utilization of the resources used, along with the commodities produced, by farming. Agricultural economics plays a role in the economics of development, for a continuous level of farm surplus is one of the wellsprings of technological and commercial growth. Farmers have always had to worry about economics. At what price can they sell their produce? Will buying new dairy cows pay off in having more milk to sell? What's the going rate for farm labor? Tea is the most popular drink in the world after water - an estimated 70,000 cups are drunk every second. Yet tea farmers and workers struggle to get a fair deal. This can have a very real and human cost. One in four children in Kenya's tea and coffee-growing regions are malnourished, leading to stunted growth. One in 10 children in the tea-growing regions of Malawi die before their fifth birthday. Tea is produced on large plantations or estates and picked by employed workers. It is also grown on small plots of land by smallholder farmers who sell their freshly-plucked green leaf to plantations or tea factories for processing into black tea. In Africa, the average smallholder's farm is less than half the size of a football pitch. Tea farmers face the challenge of low and fluctuating prices for the green leaf they sell, and a lack of power in a tea supply chain dominated by large companies. On tea estates, the challenges for workers vary depending on the origin. Workers may face low wages, long working hours and a difficult relationship with estate management. Often it is the management they depend on for basic needs such as housing, healthcare, access to water and even education for their children. Kenya's agricultural sector directly influences overall economic performance through its contribution to GDP. Periods of high economic growth rates have been synonymous with increased agricultural growth. The tea sector is a dominant sector and the coffee sector has started to pick up following a decline in the recent past. Malawi is one owning the natural environment to grow tea country. In 2019, Malawi's economic growth is projected to reach 4.4%, increasing over the medium term to 5.0 - 5.5%. Growth in 2019 is buoyed by a good harvest overall, despite the impact Cyclone Idai. Solid agricultural growth is likely to support agro-processing and households' disposable incomes, which should, in turn, drive the service sector.