The dominating farming system of the study area is the “cassava-based traditional subsistence shifting cultivation system” (ARPT 1985). In addition, another farming system called “small-scale, semi-commercial farming” has been identified, encompassing farmers who besides their subsistence farming grow crops (pineapple, hybrid maize) or raise cattle for the market. Full-blown commercial farming also exists but is insignificant considering the area and the number of people involved.
Using the FSR (Farming Systems Research) methodology of “zoning” and “formal verification surveys” (see Appendix 3), ARPT has identified a number of variables or factors characterizing these farming systems. For example: major crops grown, livestock, sources of cash income, land use methods, use of labour resources and constraints.
The farmers of the small-scale semi-commercial farming system use the same methods, crops and livestock as the subsistence farmers for their staple crops. However, they also produce crops (hybrid maize, pineapple) or livestock for the market using relatively modern methods and inputs. The number of farmers involved in this kind of farming is about 10% of all households in the study area.
Of the 23 farmers interviewed, 13 were judged as small-scale, semi-commercial farmers. They were either cultivating pineapple (4), hybrid maize (6) or raising cattle (4). To this group were also added farmers with employment in the formal sector (3).
The remaining 10 farmers were considered as subsistence oriented belonging to the “cassava-based traditional subsistence shifting cultivation system”. Although all of them were selling off their food crops and, at times, substantial amounts of, for example, soyabeans, none of them were producing the typical cash crops of the area for which there exists a sure external market, and on which the farming system above was defined.
The semi-commercial farmers are over-represented in the sample as compared to the population as a whole. This conforms with the findings of the ALCOM fish farmer survey in the area, which concluded that fish farmers on average were better-off households, owning more assets and having more resources at their disposal.
Three of the owners of fish ponds in the sample were women. Only one, however, was a woman in a woman-headed household. This is in line with another finding of the ALCOM fish farmer survey. In spite of a nearly 30% incidence of women-headed households in the district, few fish farmers are women in female-headed households.
