1. Farming Systems Research (FSR) - zoning and formal verification surveys.
The provincial branch of ARPT (Adaptive Research Planning Team), which is the Zambian institute on FSR (Farming Systems Research), has from its Mutanda research station in Solwezi classified the major farming systems occurring in Mwinilunga district. The process by which farming systems are classified is called “zoning”. The categories or homogenous groups (farming systems) into which the farmers are divided through this process are operationally named “recommendation domains” as they constitute the unit on which general constraints are identified and solutions proposed.
The variables or criteria on which the farming systems in Mwinilunga district were identified were:
major food crops grown and consumed
livestock
sources of cash income (crops, livestock and off farm activities)
land use methods and timing of operations
resource and input utilization
peak periods in agriculture
periods of food shortages.
On the basis of the above variables, the zoning of Mwinilunga district led to the classification of three types of farming systems:
the cassava-based traditional subsistence shifting cultivation system
the small-scale semi-commercial farming system
the full-blown commercial farming system.
The full blown commercial farming system is insignificant with respect to the number of people and the area involved. It is not considered further here. The other two will be described below.
The zoning process is mostly accompanied by “informal farmer surveys”. Through unstructured and informal interviews with a few farmers and key informants, the surveys seek to give additional information to the farming systems classifications.
After this is completed, a formal verification survey takes place of a number of farmers representing a farming system. The purpose is to more precisely formulate a hypothesis on constraints, identify possible solutions to such constraints and set research priorities relevant for the farming systems under study. The practical research is carried out on-farm.
ARPT in Solwezi has carried out a formal verification survey in Kanyama in Mwinilunga district, on the basis of interviews with 160 subsistence oriented households. The findings of that survey have been incorporated into the description of the cassava-based traditional shifting cultivation farming systems presented below.
2. The cassava-based traditional shifting cultivation farming system
This is the traditional system of the Lunda people and involves the majority of households in Mwinilunga district.
2.1 Crops
Cassava is the all-important staple food crop, followed by local maize, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, calabash and fingermillet.
Important relishes particularly during the dry season are leaves from cassava, sweet potatoes and pumpkins. Local vegetables such as tomatoes, rape, onions, okra and rasella are grown by most households. Beans, cow peas and bambara nuts also frequent by serve as relishes and are to some extent complemented by groundnuts and soyabeans.
Fruits are less common than vegetables. Bananas, followed by melons, are the most frequently grown (by about half of the household).
The meat eaten is usually game meat. Only rarely does one's own livestock serve as meat. Fish obtained fresh (caught) or dried is eaten when possible.
2.2 Land use practice
This farming system revolves around shifting cultivation using the chitemene method. Land may be cleared from virgin woodland or from old fields under bush fallow since 3–4 years back. Shortage of virgin land is occurring in some areas, e.g., Ikelenge.
2.3 Land preparation
Between April and August when virgin land is prepared, trees are felled and branches cut and heaped into the cleared area. Just before the onset of the rains in October everything is burned to form ash patches ready for sowing.
Land that was under crops during the previous season is, during this time, made ready through “hoeing”. During land preparation the whole household is involved.
2.4 Planting
Cassava is normally planted on mounds in the second year after clearing virgin bush, or in the first year after clearing secondary bush on previously used fields. It is often interplanted with one or more crops, such as local maize, sweet potatoes, beans or groundnuts. Cassava is planted at the start of the rains.
Local maize is also planted along streams or in valleys near water, where it is watered until the rains start. Beans are grown both intercropped with cassava or in pure stand. They may be sown twice, at the start of the rains and again in February.
Vegetables are grown in beds in the rainy season and to some extent near water in the dry season.
Cassava fields are weeded during the first year and otherwise once after the harvest of the intercrops.
2.5 Harvesting
Cassava is continuously harvested from the first year after planting. The unpeeled roots are soaked for 3–6 days in rivers, streams or waterholes, after which they are peeled and broken into “chips”. After drying, they are pounded into flour ready for nshima.
Finger millet is harvested from April to May to be used for meal and for beer brewing. Local maize is normally harvested to be eaten green. Other crops are harvested when ready or when needed.
2.6 Rotation
On land cleared from virgin bush, cassava is planted with intercrops the second year after clearing. The first year is for finger millet.
After harvest of the intercrops the cassava remains for another one to two years until it is completely harvested. The land then is kept fallow for three to four years before it is once again cleared and replanted with cassava and intercrops. After three such cycles the land is more or less permanently abandoned.
2.7 Inputs
Purchased inputs are practically non-existent. No artificial fertilizers are used and only occasionally animal manure (vegetables).
2.8 Labour and farming equipment
Household labour constitutes the main labour resource. Other sources are hired labour and exchange labour. Household composition by age and sex determines available labour both totally and with respect to gender fixed tasks.
About half the population belongs to what is conventionally accepted as the labour force (16–64 years). Although males and females are present in the same numbers (47% and 53% respectively), males are not evenly distributed among the households. More than half of the households interviewed in the formal verification survey had only one male present in this category, while about 20% had none at all (the majority of female headed households).
This has implications for land clearing which almost exclusively is a male activity. Absence of male labour forces some households to cultivate the same plots over and over again depleting soil fertility. Additional labour may be hired to alleviate shortages. This, however, requires resources in cash or kind to pay for it.
In this farming system, hoes and aces constitute the main tools and are the only ones common to all households. They are, however, not evenly distributed between households. Female headed households have less than average of these tools per household member. Pangas are also fairly common while shovels and wheelbarrows are very rare.
This farming system is characterised by a low-productivity technology and little capital. Labour is the critical factor in increasing the cultivated area. With only hoes and axes and male labour in relatively short supply, very limited amounts of land can be taken up, also under the best conditions. On average the area under cultivation per family is about 1.25 to 1.75 ha.
The busiest period is from November to February (rainy season). All farmers are occupied with ridging, moulding and planting of cassava and other staples during this time. Another busy period is the tree cutting in May and June, which together with making moulds for cassava is considered to be the hardest and most tiring work. These are also the tasks for which labour is most frequently hired.
Land preparation is traditionally and predominantly a male activity. Cultivation of cassava and other staples is for women although they frequently are assisted by men in the hard work of making cassava moulds.
2.9 Livestock
About 30% of the farm families have about five goats and two-three sheep. The are more often kept to raise cash than to provide meat for family consumption.
In parts of the district, pigs are fairly common ranging around homesteads in head sizes of five to ten. (It was learnt by the author, however, that pigs had been banned from villages by the chiefs and in 1988 and 1989 very few pigs were encountered. The reason for the ban is not known).
Almost all farm families have chickens (about ten roaming around the homestead). As with goats, they are regarded mainly as a way of raising cash as the need arises.
2.10 Cash incomes
Farmers in this subsistence group manage with very small amounts of cash. Subsistence production aim at producing food primarily for home consumption. Some of this food, however, may be sold either as a small surplus or because cash is needed to buy other essentials, to pay school fees, etc. Because of the nature of subsistence production, large amounts of food cannot be sold without risking hunger. In addition, farmers engage in off-farm activities to generate cash income.
Most farmers sell off their staples like cassava, maize, sweet potatoes, beans, vegetables, etc. These crops are sold almost entirely on the informal market. Recent attempts have been made to incorporate these crops into the formal marketing system advocated by the Northwestern Province Co-operative Union. Progress has been slow with few crops marketed. Soya beans is one of the crops in which there has been some development.
Sale of off-farm produce generates cash income complementary to the farm produce. The most important sources are honey and honey beer, mushrooms, handicrafts, fishing and game meat. The relative importance of these off-farm incomes varies from area to area. Near the Angola border, as is the case for ALCOM's study, fishing and game meat may be among the most important sources of income because of the proximity to hunting and fishing areas.
Piecework on other peoples farms or other kinds of tasks also generate cash income. Apart from piecework, more cash derives from sale of farm produce than off-farm activities. Farmers ability to raise cash is limited as quantities of crops sold are small. The farming operations on which cash is spent are land preparation (tree felling) and making cassava moulds, coinciding with the busiest periods in agriculture. The cash spent on farming is, therefore, used to overcome the critical bottlenecks of insufficient labour for these tasks and is not enough to purchase other inputs to increase productions.
2.11 Food supply
Cassava is a very reliable food crop resulting in farm families in this system being rarely short of their staple food. The main problem, however, is shortages of relish. Green leaves (cassava and sweet potatoes) dwindle during June, July and part of August. During this time, most vegetables are also out of season. Other relished are inadequate or unreliable to substitute significantly for leaves and vegetables during this time.
3. The small-scale semi-commercial farming systems
A relatively small number of small-scale farmers have been classified as semi-commercial. These farmers operate a dual system. On the one hand they produce the same staples using the same methods as the subsistence group just described. However, they also produce certain crops (or livestock) for the market using relatively modern or improved methods. These farmers have been categorized into different groups depending on the cash enterprises they operate. Here farmers involved in producing pineapple, hybrid maize and cattle for the market will be presented.
The area of cash crops cultivated rarely exceeds 12 ha. Where farmers are unable to hire tractors to plough the land, the area is likely to be less than 2 ha., often less than 1 ha. Through the cash enterprises these farmers engage in, they are relatively better off than subsistence farmers. They have more money and assets, ability to hire labour etc.
3.1 Maize growers
Between 10–15% of the households in the district are involved in production of hybrid maize. As with farmers producing pineapples for the market, small amounts of other crops are often marketed simultaneously. Examples: beans, onions, pineapples, Irish potatoes, groundnuts, soyabeans, sunflower or coffee.
While traditional practices (use of hoes, local seed varieties, shifting cultivation, etc.) are followed in the production of subsistence crops, relatively modern practices (improved seed varieties, fertilizers, tractors for ploughing) are applied to the cultivation of hybrid maize. This was, for example, the case with maize growers in Kanongesha who were supported by Lwawu Catholic Mission. (Kanongesha was one of the areas in the ALCOM study).
3.2 Pineapple growers
This system is confined to sandy and acid areas of Mwinilunga district. About 10% of all households in the district grow pineapples, more frequently in certain areas. Pineapples were commonly grown by farmers in Ikelenge, Nyakaseya and Mwininyilamba (three of the four areas studied by ALCOM 1989).
Contrary to the practice amoung maize growers, use of purchased inputs is minimal among pineapple farmers. All cultivation is done by using hoes. Some of the bigger farmers hire workers for cash to assist in stumping, ridging, digging, planting and weeding. Small-scale farmers offer beer in return for such services.
No fertilizers or insecticides are applied to the pineapple crop.
The crop is purchased by the canning factory at Mwinilunga and by private traders from the Copperbelt and Lusaka.
3.3 Beef cattle owners
Cattle farmers are mainly found in Kanyama and Kakoma and, to some extent, in Kanongesha. Only a small percentage of households in the district own cattle.
As with other cash croppers, cattle owners may at the same time produce hybrid maize, pineapples and other crops for the market.
Farmers with cattle often employ or hire herders as the animals may reside some distance from the homesteads. The average herd size is about 20 cattle, sold either as live animals or as meat after slaughter.
