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As those who plant perennial tree-crops mostly plant the usual
food-crops as well, to have a tree-crop farm more often than not means to
have two (or more) farms. In fact, as Table 12 shows, as many as 75 farmers
in the sample, or nearly 300/0 (N = 255), reported that they cultivated
another farm; another 14 stated that they cultivated two (or three) more
farms. In other words, 166 farmers out of the total of 255 farmed only the
plot on the basis of which they had been sampled.
Table 12:
Male and Female Farmers Cultivating More than One Farm
Male Female Total
One More Farm 45 30 75
Two or Three 12 2 14
Total 57 32 89
Out of 142 113 255
or40OJo or 28OJo or 35OJo
The 255 farmers who were interviewed thus together cultivated (166 x 1 +
75 x2 + 14x 3.5) ,;" 365 farms. On the question of incidence of perennial
cash crops a reliable estimate can also be made. Ofthe 255 sample farms,
21 were found to be planted with a tree-crop in one or another stage of
maturity. In addition, of the 89 farmers cultivating more than one farm,
53 or 60% planted a perennial tree-crop' , so that a total of 74 of the 365
farms which the 255 farmers were cultivating, or a full one-fifth (20%),
were devoted to such cash crops as lime, palm oil, cocoa or coconut.
In Table 12, as before in Table 10, a difference between male and
female farmers comes to the fore.
There seems little doubt that in procuring a second or third farm
plot for a perennial tree-crop, members of land-holding lineages have a
clear advantage over the others, no matter whether they look for a suitable
plot on the land oftheir own family or of relatives. Since, at the end of the
last century, the cultivation of marketable tree-crops has become of
importance, the auxiliary rules have frequently been invoked for the very
purpose of acquiring additional land.
Apart from these reasons there are indications that some of the
Asasewuranom promote farming by their own lineage-members on
paternal and, to a lesser extent, on in-laws' family land so that a larger
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