The persistence of a low productive peasant sector in sub-Saharan Africa is one of the enigmas of development research. Green approaches this crucial question by analysing the paths of agrarian change in two contrasting cases in Malawi from the mid-1930s to the late 1970s. The two cases - Thyolo and Mzimba districts - with their differences in terms of population density, infrastructure and environmental contexts, are compared with a focus on changes in agricultural production and farming systems.