Keywords

Introduction

The urban food trading system needs much further research in order to tackle the challenges of urban food insecurity and urban poverty. Although there has been considerable work on urban food systems and urban food markets (FAO, 2018; Frayne et al., 2010; iPES-Food, 2017; Pothukuchi & Kaufman, 1999; Riley et al., 2018), there has been much less exploration of the relationship among different food traders and the implications of new entrant migrant food traders for the food marketing systems of secondary cities. Some scholars have explored the dualistic relationship that exists between formal and informal food traders and the implications for food governance and the creation of an enabling institutional environment that supports sustainable urban food systems (Skinner & Haysom, 2016; Skinner et al., 2018). They warn against labeling informal systems as obstacles to sustainability (Gondwe et al., 2011). Most policymakers, however, associate informality with barriers to sustainable food systems and are of the view that formalizing the informal food trading system can improve urban food systems.

Throughout sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), rural-urban migration is reshaping the foodscape of secondary cities (Morgan & Sonnino, 2010). Small towns have always been spaces of connectivity between societies, in terms of trade, exchange of ideas and goods, and the establishment of food routes (Agergaard et al., 2019). As larger primate cities become overwhelmed, smaller urban centers are experiencing an unprecedented and revolutionary demographic transition (Haysom & Fuseini, 2019). The ongoing revolution has profound social and economic implications for urban food systems in secondary cities. Small cities are experiencing a surge in economically active populations who are becoming actively engaged in the urban food systems in attempts to secure income and livelihoods (Tacoli & Agergaard, 2017).

This chapter focuses on the case of the secondary city of Mzuzu in northern Malawi. Mzuzu is Malawi’s third administrative city, located in the northern region of the country. The other two regions of the country are home to the political capital (Lilongwe in the central region) and the commercial capital (Blantyre in the southern region). Mzuzu has emerged as a fast-growing administrative city for the northern region, deliberately supported by decentralization policies meant to diffuse the high rate of urbanization in primate cities in Malawi. The Government of Malawi has therefore prioritized making the city an economic hub for the northern region. The government’s proposed framework advocates local government systems and the spread of responsibilities from traditional primate cities to smaller cities across Malawi (Government of Malawi, 2013). By SSA standards, Mzuzu fits in the subnational secondary city category, which is mainly characterized by administrative functions for the central government (Roberts, 2014).

Mzuzu has 15 administrative wards and covers an area of 144 square kilometers within the municipal boundaries. The Government of Malawi National Statistical Office (2018) estimated Mzuzu’s population at around 221,000 in 2018. The city had the highest rate of population increase (5.4% between 2008 and 2018) among all the urban areas in Malawi. The city’s population accounts for around eight percent of Malawi’s urban population and 1.3% of Malawi’s entire population. In the foreseeable future, there is potential for Mzuzu to become a corridor secondary city due to its proximity to neighboring Tanzania, which is one of the country’s main trading partners and a gateway to the Asian markets. The city has a youthful demographic profile, with youth and children under 20 years of age constituting more than half the population. A high number of poor migrant households are food insecure and heavily reliant on the informal sector as their source of food. Rural-urban migration is a major contributor to the rise in the population of the city (Riley et al., 2018). Informality plays a major role in food supply and occurs in the context of a negligible investment environment and insufficient employment creation opportunities (Government of Malawi, 2018). These characteristics are familiar in most secondary cities in SSA (FAO, 2018; Haysom & Fuseini, 2019; Roberts, 2014).

Combatting food insecurity and urban poverty in secondary cities require a concerted effort and set of interventions appropriate to the nature and types of households inhabiting these cities, as well as the food systems and forms of food governance within them. The focus of this chapter is the social and economic interactions of rural migrants actively involved in the food market system and their possible impact on food security (access, distribution, availability) in shaping a sustainable urban food system. The local government has attempted to accommodate and acknowledge rural migrants as permanent urban settlers by expanding social service provision to match the growing urban population through the implementation of the priority areas one and seven of the National Urban Policy (Government of Malawi, 2019). While this approach has partially assisted in managing the ever-increasing urban population, there has been less understanding of the social and economic integration of rural migrants and their insertion into the urban economy and especially the food trading sector. This chapter aims to contribute to the literature by exploring the dynamic changes facing migrants in secondary cities through the lens of urban poverty and urban food market systems. It aims to understand the extent to which rural migrants are involved in food trading in comparison with their urban-born counterparts. It further explores how the integration of migrant rural food traders can build sustainable food market systems and reduce poverty in urban societies undergoing transition.

Methodology

The research presented in this chapter was undertaken as part of the African Food Security Urban Network—Food, Urbanization, Environment and Livelihoods project (AFSUN-FUEL), an interdisciplinary policy research initiative aimed at influencing the direction of policy on urban poverty and food security in Africa (FUEL, 2021). A city-wide survey of small-scale food traders was conducted in Mzuzu to gather data about the nature of the food system. The first stage involved the multiple-frame sampling method to map the spatial location units (area sampling) and the types of enterprises (list sampling) (Battersby et al., 2016; FAO 2015). The second phase was the administration of the questionnaire to 485 respondents with purposive representation of each trading enterprise type. The number of trading enterprises of each type interviewed was proportional to the number in the overall enterprise profile. The sampling was also organized such that half the participants were from the central business area of Mzuzu and the other half were from the residential areas. In practice, a larger number of food traders in the central business district of the city were interviewed than suggested by the profile data set.

The data collected during this research was cross-tabulated to identify interactions among variables of interest (test of independence). The Pearson Chi-square test (χ2) of independence and the likelihood ratio chi-square test (G2) were used to determine significant associations among variables. In cases where the Pearson Chi-square test requirements were violated (cells with expected count less than 5 being > 20%) (Cochran, 1954), the likelihood ratio (the Monte Carlo method for computing the significance level) was used. Apart from demographic traits, variables of interest included the area of origin of food traders (migrant status), the type of enterprise (based on the main trait of the food trader), the form of enterprise (formal or informal), their motivation for selling food products, and their business practices.

Profile of Food Traders and Their Enterprises

Female vendors constituted 67% of the respondents and the food trading system is also dominated by vendors who are married (77.5%). The data indicated a significant Pearson Chi-square association between gender and marital status (χ2 (2, N = 485) = 7.319, p = 0.025). Female food vendors were more likely to be married than their male counterparts. The majority of the food trading participants had attained at least some basic education, with only 3.7% having not attained any form of education (Table 18.1). The city exhibited a rich and multifaceted food trading sector, with migrant participants from across the country. The majority of food traders interviewed (64.3%) had been born in a rural area within Malawi, while 15.1% were from another city within the country, and 2.7% were from outside the country. Only 18% had been born in Mzuzu (Fig. 18.1). Among the respondents, 88% were full-time food traders with no alternative form of employment. The average age of the respondents was 36 and the majority of food traders had been in the business for one year. A typical trader owned only one business and was part of a family comprising five family members (Table 18.2).

Table 18.1 Enterprise owner demographic characteristics
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Fig. 18.1
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Birthplace of enterprise owners

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Table 18.2 Key Socio-economic Attributes
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The city food trading system is largely controlled by informal food traders. Out of the eight types of food traders identified within the city, only those operating market stalls (9.7%) and those operating small shops (20.8%) exhibit an element of formality in their trading enterprise. The rest (69.5%) are enterprises reflecting the informal side of food trading. The majority of respondents (64.3%) within the city were rural-urban migrants. However, less than half the migrants (46.2%) were operating one of the informal enterprise types, refuting the assumption that those who migrate from rural areas mainly practice informal food trade. Furthermore, the lack of association between migrant status and type of enterprise is consistent with this assertion. Among the group that practices informal food trade, the majority were roadside vendors (48.7%).

Greater financial security for the family and the need for money to survive were the major motivational factors for establishing a food trading enterprise. Three-quarters of the traders highly rated greater financial security for the family, and 48% were food traders from rural areas. Nearly 90% of the traders cited the need for money to survive, with 56.7% being rural migrant food traders. There was a high likelihood ratio chi-square between migrant status and the motivation of wanting greater financial security for the family (G2 (16, N = 485) = 38.504, p = 0.001), and marital status and wanting greater financial security for the family (G2 (16, N = 485) = 24.203, p = 0.002). Migrant status and the need for money to survive also had a high likelihood ratio chi-square motivation factor (G2 (16, N = 485) = 32.912, p =  0.004). Rural–urban migrant food traders were more likely to attribute greater importance to financial security and the need for money to survive as their main motivations for setting up a food enterprise. The main factors in choice of location for the food enterprises were places that had plenty of customers and closeness to traffic (G2 (14, N = 485) = 21.002, p =  0.021 and G2 (7, N = 485) = 15.349, p = 0.043, respectively).

Food Sourcing and Other Business Practices

Variables of interest were selected to investigate the business practices associated with migrants and the types of enterprise they run. The variables included the source of food products sold, storage capabilities of food traders, payment of city licenses, profit-saving culture, and access to finance.

The formal market in Mzuzu was a popular place for sourcing food products for sale. Most types of traders chose the formal market as their main source of products sold (48.9%), followed by sourcing products directly from farmers (17.5%) and from wholesalers (15.9%). Most traders were selling multiple products and the above picture is based only on the main food source that a trader was using. Among the food traders who sourced their products from the formal market, 31.3% were migrant food traders.

Most food traders who participated in the study either preferred not to divulge their storage facility (41.9%) or stored their products at home (41%). There was an association between food storage and enterprise type (likelihood ratio chi-square G2 (56, N = 485) = 381.121, p  =  0.000). Food enterprises that were informal in nature, such as vendors of hot cooked foods, mobile vendors, local restaurants, roadside vendors and home-based traders, preferred storing their products at home, whereas the formal enterprises (market stalls and small shops) were more reluctant to say where they store their products.

The majority of the food traders (77.1%) indicated that they do not pay any form of tax to the city authorities, with 44.3% of these being roadside vendors. There was, however, a Pearson Chi-square association between the type of business and the remitting of license fees to the city authorities (χ2 (7, N = 485) = 102.489, p = 0.000). Informal enterprise owners were less likely to pay any form of tax compared to the owners of formal enterprises. Migrant status had no direct association with the payment of tax.

Many respondents within the city were unwilling to indicate their preferred way of storing their profits. Those who did revealed that their main mode of savings was keeping money at home (26.4%), followed by keeping the savings at a bank (14.6%). Of those who kept their earnings at home, 19.6% were migrants. Other saving channels included village banks, mobile money, and investing in stock. There was a significant likelihood ratio chi-square between the type of enterprise and the profit-saving preferences (G2 (56, N = 485) = 146.116, p = 0.000). The saving culture is more likely influenced by the type of enterprise being operated.

In the city, food enterprise owners were most likely to engage in the food business using finance obtained from their own savings (Table 18.3). The second most popular source of capital was a money gift from a relative and the third was a loan from relatives within Malawi. This indicates a significant social investment among the food enterprise owners within the city. Despite a large number of participants indicating that they established their food enterprises from personal savings, there was no statistical association between preferential access to business finance and migrant status.

Table 18.3 Major sources of business start-up capital
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Assessing Rural-Urban Migrants’ Role in the Food Trading System

The overall objective of the AFSUN-FUEL project for secondary cities is to produce data that can be used to advocate for the integration of food system planning with the development agenda for secondary cities. This effort is part of a broader fight against urban poverty framed through the lens of food, mostly focusing on the urban poor (Haysom & Fuseini, 2019). A major pillar of this notion is that bringing meaningful development to these up-and-coming urban centers will only be effective and sustainable with the urban poor residents as the main beneficiaries (Haysom, 2015). This chapter focuses on providing better insights into how participation in urban life by migrants influences their activities at the food marketplace. One trend evident in Mzuzu is rural-urban migration as a major driver of population growth within the city (Riley et al., 2018). This demographic transition has prompted significant active participation in the food economy by those identifying rural background origins and traits. The largest group of food traders interviewed were married female rural migrants engaged in full-time informal food trading. The participation of women in employment and income-generating food enterprises is a particularly important element in reducing poverty in the city (Jaglin, 2014).

The city has a relatively new informal food market system, with most enterprises established in the year prior to the survey. Most food enterprise owners have a single business that they run on a full-time basis. The food traders characteristically lack business diversity after establishing an enterprise and are not engaged in any form of business other than food trading. This suggests the existence of a group of enterprise owners who are economically poor and at the mercy of established formal food traders. Rural migrant food traders are part of the broader cohort of migrants flooding the city in search of economic opportunities, only to become third-party traders for established formal food traders.

Migration patterns and associated food marketing practices have prompted broader changes in urban food availability, in the process altering the relationship between formal and informal food enterprises (Tefft et al., 2017). At first glance, Mzuzu appears to be a city predominantly under the control of the informal sector. However, the food market sector within the city is actually dominated by more inconspicuous formal food enterprises. The large group of informal traders relies on the sourcing of their food products from the formal market. In essence, the majority of the food traders exhibit informal characteristics, but it is the formal food sector that provides the city with the majority of food products and therefore remains in economic control of the food trading system.

The 2017 Mzuzu household food security survey indicated that the city had a high food diversity score, but identified high food prices as one of the key issues affecting food access (Riley et al., 2018). The sourcing of food products by informal traders from formal sources within the city and not directly from farmers could be a reason for the high prices associated with food products. In Mzuzu, as elsewhere, access to food in urban areas is mainly enabled and constrained by the market rather than own production (Haysom & Tawodzera, 2018).

The unwillingness of most respondents to divulge where they keep their business profits suggests that the respondents are reliant on less secure methods. If they kept their profits in secure facilities, they probably would have said so. This, in turn, reflects the low use of formal money management institutions (such as banks) by food traders. The fact that most informal enterprise owners utilize their personal savings for establishing and running their business rather than using formal loans is because they perceive financial institutions as unfriendly to informal business.

Across the world, collection of revenue from informal enterprises has proved a daunting task for most central and local governments (Kundt, 2017). License paying by traders for the provision of services in the city was very limited among food traders, with no obvious mechanisms to tap into the potential revenue generation by this group. There is a widespread belief that payment for licenses is only for established formal entities. On the other hand, making informal traders pay city rates is viewed by established formal traders as acceptance of the operations of informal traders. The tolerance of informal food traders by the city authorities has met to date with mixed reactions by those operating formal enterprises, with some advocating their removal from the food market system. Mzuzu City Council experienced a two-year (2017–2019) boycott on market fee payment by members of the Mzuzu Vendors Association in a bid to force the council to remove informal traders, whom they accused of operating illegally.

Finally, informal food traders are attracted to doing business in areas that have plenty of customers and are close to traffic, which is indicative of their impermanent nature. With the city authorities providing storage facilities only for those conducting business in market stalls, the storage of food products is a further challenge and even a tool of exclusion for informal trading. On the other hand, the city’s food market system has been established and is dominated by food traders who are highly motivated to secure greater financial security for their families. For them, informal work is a necessity rather than a choice. This motivation suggests that there is an opportunity to build a sustainable market system based on full-time employees who will serve market demand while their families stay in the city (Zogli et al., 2019).

Policy Directions for a Sustainable and Inclusive Food System

This chapter offers a view of secondary cities as spaces of connectivity for food and development in the context of high levels of rural–urban migration. It offers new insights on how different variables relate to the main participants in the urban food trading system. By exploring migrant status and business practices, it shows how the actions of small food enterprise owners shape the food market environment in a secondary city. This chapter demonstrates the importance of examining multiple variables to understand the broader food system. This is similar to Heather Mackay’s (2019) intersectional analysis of food security in Uganda, with observations linking migrant status, gender, and age support interventions based on a more sophisticated understanding of food system actors.

The chapter also points to the need for a coherent local governance framework in which food enterprise owners would pay for some form of license for the services they use and that could raise city revenue. This would require a new, inclusive approach to informality that acknowledges and supports the informal trade and stimulates traders to purchase licenses. In turn, there is a need for greater understanding of the motivations and financial and governance challenges faced by migrant informal food traders as well as their positive contributions to the urban food economy.

In Mzuzu, the majority of informal food market participants are rural migrants, which have impacts on motivations for participation, types of food trading, sourcing strategies and other business practices, and economic status. It is widely accepted that rural populations will play a role in the success of growing secondary cities. This chapter argues that the economic participation of this social group in the food system will also benefit their urban counterparts. This is because many rural–urban migrants are finding ways to become more active and integrated into the formal sector. What is less clear is whether migrant status affects the types of enterprises that migrants can establish. Certainly, the majority of rural migrants engage in informal food trading and the food marketing system has networks of symbiotic relationships among informal traders who act as intermediaries between fixed formal markets and low-income consumers.