has a high potential for growth. The corridor also is rich in mineral resources such as coal and uranium. Poor road accessibility and other infrastructure barriers have constrained the development of large-scale mining.

- **_Ntcheu-Tsangano-Mwanza Corridor (location: central region; population: over 510,000)._** Economic activities include agriculture, commerce, industry, forest products, and mining. Agriculture is the main activity, which includes the production of Irish potatoes, a variety of other vegetables, and fruits, as well as cotton and tobacco. Commercial activities include small-scale trading in charcoal as well as some wheat and vegetables. The corridor also has a wide range of mineral deposits, which include granite, gold, phosphate, and gemstones.  Although currently mining takes place on a small scale, an assessment of the area has indicated some export potential could develop with the adoption of modern technologies.  Also there is significant potential for cultural, highland and mountain tourism.

- **_Mangochi-Cape McLear Corridor (location: southern region; population: over 600,000)._** Over 90% of the population in the district is engaged in growing crops and fishing .  Food crops include maize and a variety of other vegetables. The main cash crops are tobacco, groundnuts and cotton.  Fishing is one of the major sources of income and livelihood in the corridor. Furthermore, the corridor borders Lake Malawi and the country's Spatial Development Initiative has indicated that the corridor has the potential to become a major hub of tourism.

- **_Zomba-Phalombe-Mulanje Corridor (location: southern region; population: over 1,200,000)._** This corridor has a diversity of existing and potential economic development activities. There is a high potential for agro-processing and some of the main crops are maize, groundnuts and paprika.  Tea in the Mulanje area is a significant foreign exchange earner. Mining prospects are substantial, given 26 million tons of bauxite resources.  There is also some potential for phosphate mining for the production of fertilizer.  The scope for tourism is sizeable given elements of some cultural and historical interest as well as mountains and areas of ecological interest.

- **_Nsanje-Bangula-Tengani Corridor (location: southern region; population: 126,230)._** This corridor has one of the major cotton growing areas in Malawi and therefore there is some scope for textile production.  The main crops are cotton, maize, millet and sorghum.  Mining potential includes about 15 million tons of coal. There are also areas of substantial wildlife interest and related tourism.

# **Tradeoffs with poverty reduction?**

42. _Will prioritization of feeder roads in the south and central regions impose tradeoffs with objectives of poverty reduction_ ? To examine this question, data from the IHS2 were used to identify locations specific factors contributing to a households’ probability of living in poverty (see Table 11). For all households in the IHS2 sample, higher agronomic potential and better transport connectivity to urban centers reduces the probability of being in poverty. Interestingly, this pattern is the same both for households who produce crops as well as nonagriculture households. This suggests higher agronomic potential benefits even households without any crop production due to upstream/downstream linkages between agriculture and non-agriculture industries.

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