This report presents findings of the 2025 National Census of Agriculture (2025 NACA). The 2025 NACA is the fifth in a series to be conducted in Malawi, the last being the 2006/2007 National Census of Agriculture and Livestock (NACAL). The first National Sample Survey of Agriculture (NSSA) was conducted in 1968/69. The 2025 NACA was conducted with financial and technical support from the Government of Malawi, FAO and largely the World Bank through the Statistical Capacity Project (StatCap).

The overall goal of the 2025 NACA is to provide small area data on the structure of agriculture in Malawi, provide data for developing effective policies that can support resilient, productive and sustainable agricultural future, provide data for monitoring and evaluation of indicators for tracking agricultural development programs in line with Malawi 2063 and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and providing a sampling frame for future agricultural surveys and research. Since the last 2006/07 NACAL, the country lacked up to date structural information of the agricultural sector to meet the current data needs for the design and management of rural development policy. The 2025 NACA was a sample-based census of agriculture which provide estimates at national, regional, Agricultural Development Division (ADD), district, urban and rural area levels with key agricultural statistics and indicators for policy formulation, decision making and monitoring and evaluation of programs.

The 2025 NACA collected information on various agricultural themes such as demographics, land use, agricultural practices, irrigation, agricultural services, farm machinery, labour input, livestock and aquaculture among others. The 2025 NACA collected information from smallholder farming households, estates as well as communities. This report focuses on household-based data collected from 29,648 smallholder farming households across the country.

Microdata Access

Researchers and analysts can access the 2025 National Census of Agriculture(NACA) datasets for secondary analysis through 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VkqF_AS0G5TchHA62FgP8Ray8S1GMHYe