SIERRA LEONE maq 4ª.indd - agrilife - Europa

6 Survey Results
120
Figure 62. Farm viability of smallholders in Eastern region based on Neoclassical Approach
In the Eastern districts and under PF income
approach, 97% of the smallholders are above
and 3% fall below the reproduction threshold (RT
East = 700000 Leones) 43 . With the NA income
approach 93% are above and 7% fall below. In
the Eastern region the difference between the two
approaches is smaller since these smallholders
are more integrated into the market economy.
Overall, these results imply that while in the
Northern region most of the farms could not be
viable if they would be taken out of their social/
cultural/village environment with current farming
practices and productivity level, on the Eastern
region most of the farms are deemed viable as
a separate or self-standing unit of production
and less dependent on social aspects. Although,
it must be stressed that cash tree crop farms are
heavily dependent on village networks in order
to secure additional labour during collection
periods. With the intention of further analysing of
farm viability, the analysis focuses on farm types.
The farm household were grouped into
different farm types based on their crop mix and
degree of market or self-consumption/(semi)
43 The reproduction threshold for the Eastern region (RT east)
was set to be equal to 700000 Leones of Farm Net Income
per household working unit (see Chapter 5)
subsistence orientation. Figure 63 and Figure 64
present results under the NA and the PF approaches
of the viability analysis per farm type. Under the NA
income approach, most of the (semi)subsistence
oriented farm types (F1-F5), located in the Northern
region appear as non-viable, and only the market
oriented ones of the Easter region (F6-F8) are above
the reproduction threshold. Under the PF income
approach it is demonstrated that farm types F1-F5
may also be viable when their specific context and
environment conditions are explicitly accounted
for. In other words, under the PF income approach
issues related to the village organisational schemes
and institutional arrangements are considered. The
latter, is therefore seen as a more realistic framework
in which to evaluate farm viability in Sierra Leone.
Figure 65 and Figure 66 illustrate the economic
viability per farm type in the Northern and Eastern
regions separately, based on PF income approach.
In the Northern districts, there is a tendency
to crop diversification as the land availability
per household member increases. The smallest
farms are mainly growing only rice and maybe
other food crops for a very low income (FT1,
FT2), however slightly bigger farms tend to have
oil palm and other tree crops as well (FT3, FT4),
which helps them to produce higher output
value per household unit. Although output