This thesis uses Malawi’s Third Integrated Household Survey 2010 – 2011 combined
with improved rainfall estimates from a 30-year time series to create an objectively measured
drought index. I first estimate the impact of this severe negative rainfall shock, defined as
precipitation levels during the reference season of interest more than twenty percent less than the
long-run median, on numerous indicators of agricultural production and household welfare. I
then examine the extent to which households are able to mitigate the impact of a negative rainfall
shock through a variety of plot and household-level characteristics. Findings reveal that
households experiencing a severe negative rainfall shock during the wettest quarter of the
2008/2009 or 2009/2010 agricultural seasons, on average, suffered from significantly lower
maize yields, values of agricultural output, total per capita consumption expenditures, food
expenditures and dietary diversity. Households that planted tobacco as the primary crop, were
located in a tropic-cool/semiarid agroecological zone or had access to credit appeared better able
to protect their agricultural production and consumption levels from the negative impact of the
rainfall shortage.