This book and accompanying CD-ROM assess the Starter Pack programme, set up in Malawi. This initiative involved giving away a tiny bag of agricultural inputs - fertilizer and seed - to every smallholder farmer. The book explores all phases of programme implementation; how it didn't work as originally intended, its success in achieving national food security, subsequent scaling down and the follow on food crisis that struck Malawi in 2002. The reader will gain a full understanding of the practicalities and key policy issues associated with implementing such an initiative. In the context of repeated interventions in recent years, often unsuccessfully, by governments, donors and NGOs, this book highlights a much needed success story in the fight against hunger. The accompanying CD contains the Monitoring and Evaluation Archive of Starter Pack.