Abstract Malawi, a country with 70% of land allocated to maize production and maize dominated diets, sees the need to engage in a serious drive towards agricultural diversity. A study was conducted in 2016 and 2017 in Lilongwe District to measure the status of agriculture diversity among 424 randomly selected smallholder households from 36 proportional probability sampled villages. Results showed that 82.5% of farmers identified maize as their priority crop. Diversity of fruit trees was low as 40.3% of households grew mangoes, followed by 3.3% who grew paw paws. Only 22.4% of the farmers had backyard gardens. Livestock and poultry diversity was also low as only 50.9% of households owned chickens, followed by 26.2% of household who owned goats, while only 1.7% of the households owned cows. A Holistic Agricultural Diversity Index was constructed with a scale ranging from zero (for complete non-diversification) to one (for complete diversification). Mean diversity index among sampled households was 0.2822 and a standard deviation of 0.1938 indicating low agricultural diversity in Lilongwe. Proximity to Lilongwe city agriculture market did not trigger higher agricultural diversity. Policies and programs need to promote production of crops that require low levels of inputs such as groundnuts and cassava, as well as provision of veterinary services and implementation of livestock (such as poultry, goats, and rabbits) pass-on programs to increase crop, and livestock diversity, respectively. Further research is required in other districts to measure agricultural diversity under different conditions and to test the Holistic Agricultural Diversity Index proposed in this study.

中文翻译：

---

作为衡量农业多样性的整体农业多样性指数：马拉维利隆圭地区小农的横断面研究

摘要 马拉维 70% 的土地被分配用于玉米生产和以玉米为主的饮食，它认为有必要大力推动农业多样性。2016 年和 2017 年在利隆圭区进行了一项研究，以衡量来自 36 个比例概率抽样村庄的 424 个随机选择的小农户的农业多样性状况。结果显示，82.5% 的农民将玉米确定为他们的优先作物。果树的多样性较低，40.3% 的家庭种植芒果，其次是 3.3% 的家庭种植爪子。只有 22.4% 的农民拥有后院花园。家畜和家禽的多样性也很低，只有 50.9% 的家庭拥有鸡，其次是 26.2% 的家庭拥有山羊，而只有 1.7% 的家庭拥有奶牛。构建了一个整体农业多样性指数，其范围从零（完全非多样化）到 1（完全多样化）。抽样家庭的平均多样性指数为 0.2822，标准差为 0.1938，表明利隆圭农业多样性较低。靠近利隆圭市农业市场并没有引发更高的农业多样性。政策和计划需要促进需要低投入量的作物的生产，例如花生和木薯，以及提供兽医服务和实施牲畜（例如家禽、山羊和兔子）传递计划以增加作物、和牲畜多样性。