Youth who form more than half of the total population of Malawi, estimated at 16.1 million.
They lack access to productive resources, are more likely to remain food insecure at
household level, and their children are more likely to be nutritionally challenged. They are
worst hit by challenges that include scarcity of land, limited access to improved farm inputs,
lack of viable markets and limited extension support. The majority practice agriculture
because it is their last option for a livelihood, and still remain under chronic food insecurity.
If empowered in agricultural production, they can play an important role in ensuring food
security for future generations.In order to make agriculture more attractive there is need for
dynamic and appealing intervention programs for young people so that they can view the
sector more positively than they do now. This paper provides some empirical evidence to
strengthen this notion, and explores the third Malawi Integrated Household Survey in order to
establish some of the factors of production among youth headed households that potentially
determine household food security and nutritional status of children. Regression models
results indicate positive associations between control on decisions concerning crops to plant
(0.16; p<0.1), cash crops (p<0.05), maize availability in the markets (p<0.1), and cash for
work programmes (p<0.1). Living below poverty line (p<0.1), availability of produce
markets (p<0.1), microfinance (p<0.1), female headed household (p<0.1) negatively affect
household nutritional status of youth headed households. These results are crucial in guiding
effective nutrition sensitive agriculture policies and intervention programs which are meant to
attract young people to participate agribusiness activities for sustainable livelihoods.