This paper, which focuses on the Chinyanja Triangle (CT), an area inside the Zambezi River Basin, characterises three distinct farming subsystems across rainfall gradients, namely maize-beans-fish, sorghum-millet-livestock and the livestock-dominated subsystem. It presents the socioeconomic characteristics, historical drivers of change, resources use and management (water, land, forestry) and the institutional disincentives affecting agricultural production and productivity in the region. The paper also attempts to identify major drivers of change, and inventorize key institutions in the region and suggests improved institutional arrangements for improving agricultural productivity, resilience and ecosystem health at farm, landscape and basin scales.