9.4 The agricultural background

9.4.1 Agriculture in the economy
9.4.2 Rainfall and agricultural regions
9.4.3 Land tenure
9.4.4 Major production systems

9.4.1 Agriculture in the economy

Agriculture's contribution to Alphabeta's economy is significant, presently accounting for 30% of GDP and 60% of export earnings. Agriculture absorbs 20% of the work force in paid employment. Roughly 80% of the total population (16 million) depends predominantly on agriculture for subsistence.

The principal export earners, coffee, tea and pyrethrum, contribute about 54% of the total export earnings (Table 9.1). The main food crops are maize, beans, wheat and pulses. Maize is the staple food of the majority of the population. Livestock are important for local consumption (beef, dairying and poultry) but export earnings from this source contribute less than 10% of the total (Table 9.1).

Table 9.1. Value of principal overseas export commodities at current prices for selected years.

Items	Export values (A$ '000)
	Years
	8	9	10
Coffee	38,387	35,203	35,227
Tea	19,386	22,927	22,930
Pyrethrum	16,956	7,342	3,494
Sisal	4,441	5,410	7,338
Maize	40	5	20
Beans and peas	1,612	1,137	1,788
Cotton (raw)	1,410	3,571	1,282
Cashew nuts	692	426	1,137
Pineapples (canned)	458	286	3,604
Woods	296	368	426
Meat products	5,649	4,970	6,005
Butter and ghee	620	389
Hides and skins	1,434	1,719	5,413
Animal feeds	1,135	1,282	369
Petroleum products	26,184	30,500	31,666
Soda ash	3,986	5,635	2,378
Felspar			989
Cement	1,544	1,788	5,365
Total	124,230	122,958	128,431

9.4.2 Rainfall and agricultural regions

Rainfall in Alphabeta follows a bimodal pattern. The short rains come in November-December, followed by longer rains in March-May. This pattern prevails in the lower rainfall regions of the country as well, but the length of each rainy period is shortened. Short-season crops such as beans can be grown during the short rains in high potential regions but most cropping activities occur during the longer March-May season.

The country is divided into four ecological regions on the basis of production potential. Management practices, poverty levels and land holdings are highly diverse within and across most regions. Approximately 20% of the total area has been classified as medium-to-high potential and suitable for commercial cropping and intensive livestock production. The remaining 80% is classified as: marginal for cropping but suitable for extensive livestock systems (10%); suitable only for extensive livestock systems (50%); and suitable only for nomadic pastoralism (20%). In the semi-arid and arid regions, rainfall averages less than 600 mm/year. As expected, human population density is greatest in the medium-to-high potential regions but population growth is placing pressure on all land resources. Cultivation is being extended on to higher slopes and into more marginal areas. Excessive tree felling is evident. On rangelands, increasing stocking rates are leading to a loss of vegetation cover and species diversity and the invasion of less palatable species. As a result, soil erosion is considered to be an increasingly severe problem. Already, 25% of the country is at high erosion risk, while 60% is under moderate risk. Only 15% of the land area is not presently under threat and much of this is in the medium-to-high potential regions.

9.4.3 Land tenure

Following independence, efforts were made to redress the imbalance between land occupied by Europeans and Africans and to alter tenure arrangements in some of the communal areas. Land purchase and resettlement schemes became a major ongoing feature of government development policy with titled units being offered to African farmers in the medium-to-high potential regions of the country. In smallholder areas, the government has continued its programme of consolidating and registering land rights, previously under customary tenure. There are now some 900,000 smallholder units registered in this way. Land classification on the basis of size and title is shown in Table 9.2

Table 9.2. Distribution of households by size and type of land holdings.

Classification		% of households	No. of households	% total available land area1
Resettled farms
	large (> 20 ha)	3,500	0.1	0.1
	small (< 20 ha)	35,000	1.6	1.0
Privately owned large farms and estates		450	-	2.3
Smallholders
	registered	900,000	40.4	7.0
	unregistered	585,000	26.4	17.6
Communal pastoralists (estimates)		300,000	13.5	72.0
Landless households (estimates)		400,000	18.0	-
Total		2,223,950	100.00	100.0

¹ Available for agriculture; excluding national parks, reserves and areas unsuitable for agriculture.

9.4.4 Major production systems

Alphabeta has a relatively diversified agricultural sector in terms of production systems. For the most part, these systems are determined by agro-ecological constraints, although smallholding and estate farms coexist in the medium-to-high potential areas, and commercial livestock production may coexist with pastoralism in the more arid regions or with cash cropping in the higher potential regions. Briefly, the following features characterise these production systems.

Smallholder agriculture. Smallholders are found mostly in the medium-to-high potential areas. Maize is the dominant crop and is normally grown in conjunction with beans or other pulses. Small-scale farmers with less than 5 ha produce 90% of the country's maize and normally sell or store surpluses above subsistence needs. They also account for over 50% of the value of gross marketed production of agricultural commodities (Tables 9.3 and 9.4). Techniques of farm management are basic; cattle are important for draft, manure and milk. Yields are generally low. The use of fertilisers on maize, as well as other crops, is limited. Sorghum and millet are grown more extensively in the marginal cropping areas but maize is the preferred staple. Tea, coffee and small-scale dairying are important sources of cash in the higher potential regions of the country.

Table 9.3. Total value and percentage of gross agricultural marketed production contributed by small-scale farmers for selected years.

Year	Total value of gross marketed production (A$ '000)	Value of smallholders' contribution (A$ '000)	Smallholders' contribution (% of total)
7	105.9	55.6	52.5
8	123.3	63.3	51.3
9	148.4	75.0	50.5
10	162.0	90.1	55.6

Table 9.4. Gross value of marketed agricultural production for selected years.

Year			(A$ '000)
			8	9	10
Cereals
		Wheat	3,865	6,625	8,275
		Maize	8,571	6,482	17,022
		Others	2,055	2,251	3,626
	Subtotal		14,491	17,658	28,928
Temporary industrial crops
		Pyrethrum	3,259	4,206	4,551
		Sugar cane	4,453	5,916	8,230
		Others	1,660	2,080	3,041
	Subtotal		9,372	12,202	15,822
Other temporary crops			3,563	5,356	7,123
Permanent crops
		Coffee	32,772	35,326	35,345
		Sisal	7,051	18,350	7,038
		Tea	16,766	19,255	22,914
		Others	2,817	3,177	3,274
	Subtotal		59,406	76,108	68,571
Livestock and products
		Cattle and calves	16,353	17,610	19,827
		Dairy products	11,305	10,100	10,781
		Others	4,514	4,747	5,515
	Subtotal		32,172	32,457	36,123
Unrecorded marketed production			4,299	4,668	5,404
Total			123,303	148,449	161,966

Table 9.5 presents the frequency distribution of smallholder households by size of land holding. Of the 1.5 million smallholder households, approximately 30% have less than 1 ha, 60% less than 2 ha and 90% less than 5 ha of arable land.

Pastoral production. Pastoralists occupy the semi-arid and arid range areas and subsist primarily on cattle, sheep and goats. Purchasing food from cropping areas, through the sale of livestock and to supplement food of livestock origin, is now common.

Table 9.5. Frequency distribution of households by landholding classes.

Arable holding (ha)	No. households ('000s)	% households	Cumulative % households
0.5	206.4	14	14
0.5-0.9	265.8	18	32
1.0-1.9	400.4	27	59
2.0-4.9	462.9	3 1	90
5.0-7.9	96.4	6	96
>8.0	53.1	4	100
	1485.0	100

Agropastoral production. On the margin of the cropping and pastoral areas of the country, agropastoralists subsist mainly by cropping and the sale of cattle and/or smallstock which provide cash to meet food deficits. These deficits are common because of the unsuitability of the environment for cropping activities.

Estate and large-scale agriculture. Crops grown in the large-scale farming sector include wheat, sugar, rice, barley, coffee and tea. A number of large, privately owned co-operative, group and company ranches exist but these account for a relatively small proportion of the total national livestock herd.

9.4.5 Government services to agriculture

The agricultural sector is served by five ministries and 18 statutory boards which assist in the marketing of various agricultural products. Marketing boards are broadly empowered to control production and marketing, pricing and related activities. Several boards (e.g. the Maize Board) also have monopoly control over the movement of their products between districts. Local co-operatives and private enterprises also play an important role in the marketing of products from the smallholder sector (e.g. coffee, tea, pyrethrum and dairy goods) and in the provision of inputs and credit facilities.

Agricultural research is conducted by a variety of departments within the Ministry of Agriculture, statutory boards and Alphabeta University (AU). Despite widely dispersed responsibility for research most of the emphasis to date has been on export crops. Little attention has been given to other farm commodities from the smallholder sector.

The extension service is relatively well staffed and works through various Provincial Directors of Agriculture. The impact of the service on smallholder production has, however, been limited, partly due to lack of co-ordination with input delivery systems and partly because of the narrow focus of agricultural research.

Important points (9.2-9.4) · Agriculture makes a significant contribution to Alphabeta's economy in terms of GDP, employment, exports and provision of subsistence requirements. · Smallholder mixed farming systems predominate, comprising approximately 213 of rural households. · Livestock are integrated in the cropping systems in three out of the four ecological zones of the country. · In most production systems, farm management techniques are traditional and use of modem inputs in agriculture is limited. · Agricultural research is mainly oriented towards cash crops. · The impact of most government services on agriculture has been limited because of lack of coordination and the narrow focus of agricultural research.