A film by Charles Mann

Editors:  Clint Kenley and Michael J. Palmer

Film: 30 minutes: Supplemental features, approximately 2 hours.

Malawi's Starter Pack program dramatically raised the nation's food production and provides many lessons for improving food security in poor countries.  Created in response to a serious food emergency, instead of food aid, it gave to all small farmers in the country a small pack of improved seed and fertilizer. Through interviews and field footage this film portrays how this program was created, how and why it was changed over a six-year period, its achievements and shortcomings.  Useful for sparking discussions of alternatives to traditional food aid, in illustrating some key dilemmas of international development policy, and in conveying to development practitioners lessons learned from this well-documented food security intervention in Malawi.

Review:  “I REALLY like the Starter Pack film. It is thoughtful, balanced, picturesque, and is truly excellent in showing the reactions of various stakeholders.  It's a gem. . . . Professor (Emeritus) Walter Falcon, Stanford University

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View more details at: IMDb.com

DVD 2 DISC SET: $14.95
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RESOURCES
The most comprehensive treatment of Starter Pack and its successor programs is:  "Agricultural Productivity and Safety Nets in Malawi", Sarah Levy, editor, CABI publishing, 2005.

For an updated overview, see: "Malawi's Starter Pack: A Smarter Subsidy to Empower the Poor with Science-Based Agriculture", Africa Policy Journal, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Spring/Summer 2008. 

Download of this article available from HKS website .

Full Description 

Starter Pack: from Best Bets to Safety Net is a 30-minute documentary film about the project from its inception in Malawi in 1998 through various transformations to 2004. Government officials, scientists, donor officials and farmers present often-conflicting views on the program that raised Malawi’s food supply to record levels. In addition to the movie, the DVD also contains supplemental interviews organized according to key issues of development. The ability to access video clips tailored to particular discussion plans or opportunities makes this DVD an especially useful resource of teachers and practitioners of development. The DVD is available from: CustomFlix.com or Amazon.com or Eight Cousins, a splendid family-run bookstore.

A film by Charles Mann, edited by Clint Kenley and Michael Palmer, camera by Douglas Karr and Sierra Bellows, narrated by Charles Mann.

DVD 2 DISC SET: $14.95

DISC ONE- Film and Features

• Starter Pack: from Best Bets to Safety Net (30 minutes)
• Hunger in Malawi (15 minutes)
• The Original Concept (27 minutes)

DISC TWO - Special Features

• Targeting (23 minutes)
• Implementation (16 minutes)
• The Seed Debate (5 minutes)
• Objections and Alternatives (25 minutes)
• The Private Sector (10 minutes)

Note: PAL versions available, but only directly from DevCom

Purchase the DVDs from: CustomFlix.com or Amazon.com or Eight Cousins.

View/Download the One Sheet

View the trailer for the DevCom documentary about Starter Pack in Malawi below:

2005 CABI Publishing

In July 2005 CABI Publishing presents: Starter Packs: A Strategy to Fight Hunger in Developing Countries?. The book, edited by Sarah Levy, is a richly textured, multi-year assessment of this program by a multidisciplinary team. The book explores all phases of program implementation: initial success in sharply increasing food supplies and introducing all of Malawi’s small farmers to improved seed, fertilizer, and crop rotation; subsequent reformulation as a targeted safety net program; ensuing food crisis and subsequent program expansion. The reader will gain a full understanding of the practicalities and key policy issues associated with implementing such an initiative. In the context of repeated interventions in recent years, often unsuccessfully, by governments, donors and NGOs, this book highlights a much needed success story in the fight against hunger.

For details: www.cabi-publishing.org/bookshop