Dr. Milu Muyanga is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics at Michigan State University since June 2013. He is appointed in the fixed term system. He conducts his research, outreach and capacity building activities in Africa currently working intensively with research collaborators in Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, and Zambia. Milu is an emerging thought leader in agriculture and rural transformation in Africa with his research focusing on emerging agricultural land constraints and sustainable intensification in Africa, emerging medium-scale farms, changing structure of African farms, and youth livelihoods.  

Dr. Muyanga is widely travelled and published in a wide range of increasingly impactful refereed journals. He was recognized by the Global Development Network, winning the first prize on Best Research on Household Exposure to Risk theme in 2007.

Prior to his doctoral studies, Milu worked as a Research Fellow with Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development, Egerton University (Kenya) between 2004 and 2007. Before then he worked as an Economist in the Ministry of Planning and National Development in the Government of Kenya between 1997 and 2003.

Currently, Dr. Muyanga is on a long-term assignment in Lilongwe, Malawi, where he is overseeing the creation of two Food Security Group projects. First, the establishment of Policy Support for Agriculture Transformation (PolSAT) project. PolSAT is a policy advisory unit embedded in the Malawi Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security. Second, the establishment of a pre-eminent, respected, neutral, and self-sustaining agricultural policy institute, named the Malawi Agricultural Policy Advancement and Transformation Agenda – MwAPATA – which means “we’ve won” in Chichewa, the main language of Malawi. Milu is currently serving as the Institute’s inaugural Research Director.

Research and Outreach Interests

• Agricultural land constraints in sub-Saharan Africa
• Agricultural markets, prices and value chain analysis
• Household welfare (poverty, inequality and food insecurity) analysis
• Evidence-based agricultural policy processes
• Agricultural and rural development programs/projects monitoring and impact evaluation