Considering the potential of grain legumes for reducing hunger and malnutrition, this paper aims at identifying factors shaping demand for and consumption of dry common bean from a consumer’s perspective. Understanding and addressing these factors has potential to increase common bean consumption by enabling breeders to breed common beans with attributes that are preferred by consumers. The study employed a quantitative approach to assess various aspects of household common bean consumption from primary data collected in Lilongwe city. The study results suggest that socio-economic factors such as household size, education, gender, income, and number of children under the age of five years in the household play an important role in a household’s decision to consume common beans and the respective quantities consumed. Various product attributes such as grain size, gravy quality, and cooking time also influenced a household’s decision to consume common beans.

The first section reviews trends of bean production and constraints in Latin America and Africa. The second section covers fungal diseases. The third section, bacterial diseases. The fourth section, viral and mycoplasma diseases. The fifth section, insect pests. The last section, other bean production constraints, that is, nutritional disorders, nematodes, seed pathology, and additional problems.

A large proportion of Malawian households are caught in a trap where poverty and food insecurity reinforce one another and where periods of food deficits and severe food crises are frequent occurrences. In recognition of this, the Malawian government has since 2005/06 implemented a large-scale Farm Input Subsidy Program (FISP), which supplies half of smallholder farmers with sufficient fertilizer and maize seeds to satisfy the maize consumption needs of an average-sized family. While the program boosted maize production and lowered maize prices, thus ensuring increased caloric availability at the household level, its effect on overall food consumption, dietary diversity, micronutrient deficiency, and child nutrition is less clear. This study evaluates household expenditure survey data to measure changes in nutrition outcomes between 2004/05 and 2010/11.

This publication is a product of the experiences and lessons learned while implementing agroenterprise projects in eastern and southern Africa. A Market Facilitator's Guide is based on a resource-to-consumption framework, which is the central theme of the "enabling rural innovation" approach for rural development. This approach seeks to empower farmer groups with the necessary skills to make informed decisions for their economic development, based on an analysis of their surroundings, assets and skills. The methodology also aims for outcomes that are equitable, gender focused and participatory.

This book takes forward our understanding of agricultural input subsidies in low income countries.