According to the New York Times, Malawi's policy to prioritize agriculture and offer financial and other help to its farmers has resulted in an increase in productivity. As well as an improved ability by small farmers to be able to feed themselves and their families, and even sell surplus food. It has turned Malawi from a food-importing country to one that is now exporting to neighboring Swaziland, Lesotho and Zimbabwe, as well as being better able to plan for any future food emergency.
The government's program to provide fertilizer has been criticized by Western donor nations and agencies who see subsidies as going against free market principles. Such subsidies has meant that the goverment is able to fulfill its obligation to ensure everyone's human right to adequate food (see the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights' General Comment 12 on the Right to Adequate Food). That such complaints by Western nations about subsidies appear on the same day that the Times also reports that the French government promised support to the French farmers in the face of lower prices is ironic.
For more information and resources on the subsidies Western nations provide for their own industries, see the Third World Network and the UN Human Development Report from 2005 on extreme inequalities in trade due to the subsidies provided by rich countries. According to the HDR, in 2005, donor countries spent a little more than US$1 billion on agricultural aid for poor countries, and a just under US$1 billion every day of the same year on domestic agricultural subsidies. Even the food aid provided often comes with stipulations, such as requiring that allocations be from domestic products, thus subsidizing its own farmers even more, and drowning out competition in the recipient country. More information also can be found on ActionAid's Web site.