This monograph presents results relating to the labour economy of the Lower Shire Valley in Malawi. The data employed were collected during 1972/73 as part of a wider study conducted by the authors under the joint sponsorship of the Malawi Government and the Overseas Development Administration of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The complete study had the object of analysing development progress and prospects in an area dominated by traditional agricultural practice. A report containing the main findings of the survey has already been submitted to the sponsors(1) but the results presented here are almost entirely the product of a subsequent analysis commissioned by the O.D.A., and there is only minimal overlap with the original report.