SIERRA LEONE maq 4ª.indd - agrilife - Europa

6 Survey Results
90
Figure 23. Sources of income for smallholders in the Eastern and the Northern regions of Sierra Leone
ranked from the most important (1) to the least important (4)
In the Eastern region, 5.7 members of
households, on average, take part in farming
activities, 15% of which are part-time. In the
Northern region, 5.1 household members are
involved in farming, 25% of which are part-time.
Households dedicate more labour to farming in
the East, than in the North. This appears to be
in relation with farm size, since also the farms
(determining the demand for labour) beyond
the households (providing supply of labour) are
larger in the East than in the North (described in
section 6.1.1.).
The sources of income of the household
are illustrated in Figure 22. As expected, all
farming households earn income from farm
activities. In the Eastern region however, there
are significantly more households claiming to
receive income from non-farm activities, and
from friends and relatives than in the Northern
region. This may seem contradictory at first sight
because it is in the Northern region, and not in
the Eastern region, that household heads and
spouses claim to have more secondary activities,
and that other household members work less
intensively on the farm presumably in order to
undertake additional secondary activities. One
plausible interpretation is that off-farm activities
in the East may be better remunerated or more
easily found. In this respect, respondents were
asked to identify all sources of income for the
household without regard to the importance
of the income generated, which is presented
in Figure 23. Smallholders were asked to rank
the different sources of income on a scale from
`most important´ (rank 1) to `least important´
(rank 4). In both the Eastern and the Northern
region, ‘farm proceeds’ are the most important
source of income, and ‘gifts from friends’ and
relatives the least important. Once ranked,
‘non-farm activities’ are close to second in
the Northern and close to third in the Eastern
region. Additionally, in the Northern region,
about 10% of the households earn some income
from ‘livestock’, whereas in the Eastern region,
this is not the case for any of the households.
6.1.3 Crop Allocation and Farm Production of
smallholders
The average acreage under cultivation
per crop for the observed farm households in
the Northern and Eastern samples is presented
in Figure 24. Results indicate that in the East
farms are double the size of those in the North;
potentially allowing for additional cash crop
cultivation in the Eastern region which is also
adapted to hold these cash crops given its agroecological
conditions (Jalloh, 2006; Sierra Leone
Household Survey 2003/04, 2007).