Smallholder farmers are once again threatened in Malawi. 54 smallholder tea growers were met with dispossession and arrest when they refused to sell their land to Leston Mulli, one of the largest tea plantation conglomerates in the country.
According to the Nyasa Times, private security guards on Mulli's payroll destroyed the crops of the smallholders before illegally obtaining titles to the land and transferring ownership. However, dispossession wasn't enough as Mulli then bribed local police to have the smallholders arrested on a laundry list of trumped-up charges.
Unfortunately, this story highlights the tragic imbalance of power relations within Malawi. Small holder tea farmers regularly face pressure from large plantations to either sharecrop or become wage labourers. The lack of formal titling in many rural areas makes it considerably easier for large farms to grab land through bribes, adding another factor of pressure to small holders.
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