SIERRA LEONE maq 4ª.indd - agrilife - Europa

6 Survey Results
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market values to assess the cost of all inputs in the
case of Neoclassical Approach (VC-NA) and the
perceived costs in the case of the Peasant Farming
Approach (VC-PF). Under VC-NA calculation
the labour costs account for about 50-90% of
production cost in all districts, livestock purchases
around 2-7%, seed representing around up to
20% and tools, the lowest, around 1-3%, except
Kenema where tools constitute almost 10% of
the production costs. While by PF calculation the
real costs perceived by farmers are seed costs that
account for 20-50% of the total costs, livestock
costs from 7 to 34%, hired labour costs in cash
crop farms representing around 40%, and tools
rising to 10-20% of the input costs (Table 31).
The absolute size of the variable costs of the
smallholders for the five districts are represented
in Figure 58, which again highlights the difference
between the two approaches regarding the
exclusion of household labour and hired labour
costs in the case of food cropping for both regions.
6.2.2 Economic viability of smallholders
Economic viability of smallholders is
addressed in two different ways: farm viability
and household viability. While farm viability
is assessed using the concept of reproduction
threshold, household viability is contrasted
by defining a Full Poverty and Extreme (Food)
Poverty Lines. Before moving on to the analysis,
it is important to highlight that in the present
study the evaluation of economic viability is
undertaken using only cross-section data. For a
more in depth analysis that could reflect issues of
sustainability in the long term panel data would
be necessary. However disposing only of one
year observation the latter is out of the scope of
the present exercise.
Farm viability of smallholders
The economic viability of farms is assessed
by focusing on the farm net income per household
working unit (FNI/hhWU) in relation to the
utilised agricultural land area per household
working unit (area/hhWU). These economic
analyses allow direct comparison of the income
level across farm types.
Based on the Peasant Farming (PF) approach
on income calculation, the farm viability for each
smallholder, in the Northern and Eastern regions are
illustrated in Figure 59 and Figure 60, respectively.
These are immediately followed by the results of
income measurements under the Neoclassical
approach (NA) (See Figure 61 and Figure 62).
Figure 59. Farm viability of smallholders in Northern region based on Peasant Farming Approach