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family lands, we selected family lands located at varying distances from the
centre. S Accordingly, in studying the differences between the four lands the
effects of the factor 'distance' will somehow be thrown into relief.
We would not have brought up this issue of distance if we had not
had some definite notions as to the differences that it would make. The
research experience which accumulated during the fieldwork period gave
rise to the following hypotheses:
1. On the nearer family lands more people will attempt to acquire farms
so that the auxiliary rules which allow
- a child to farm on paternal land,
- a husband/wife to farm on the land of his/her partner's family,
- the granting of farming rights to a friend at no cost, will more
frequently be involved.
2. Because the cultivation of annual foodstuffs necessarily involves the
more regular headloading of bulky crops (cassava, plantain), there will
be a tendency to use a larger part of the nearer lands for food production
(both for subsistence and for the market).
3. Female farmers will more frequently farm on more near than on more
distant lands. This is both because women are more often engaged in
growing food crops, and because they can on average spend fewer hours
per day on farrning, so that they will want to avoid long travelling times
to and from their farms.
4. Due to the pressure to acquire farms on nearby land as well as to the
concentration of foodcrop production there, a smaller part of these
lands will remain uncultivated, fallow periods will be shorter, and a
smaller proportion of the area will be set aside for (more) permanent
cultivation.
5. Due to the more frequent allocation of farms to paternal relations, inlaws
and friends on nearby family lands, there will be less occasion to
lease land to tenants.
For the more distant lands these hypotheses mean that we shall tend to find:
- relatively fewer paternal relatives, in-laws and friends with farms there;
- a smaller proportion of the land being devoted (annual) food crops;
- relatively fewer women farming in these areas;
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