Download PDF - Anchor Environmental

5.3.2 Cropping
Some 75% of households in the study area are crop farmers. About 47% of households have dryland
fields, and a further 28% have molapo fields. Very few households have both. Fields are small and
dryland and molapo fields were not significantly different in size per household. It was estimated that
about 14 500 ha were planted in the study area in the 2004/5 crop season. Note that this was a dry
year, and the area may increase in wetter years. Most arable agriculture in the study area is dryland
farming, which makes up about 80% of the area planted (Table 5-10). Molapo farming takes place on
seasonally flooded areas or areas that are moistened by rising groundwater.
Table 5-10 Proportion of households with dryland and molapo fields, area planted per household and estimated
total area planted in the different zones during 2004/5.
Panhandle
West East
South South
West
Central Total
% hh with dryland fields 66.1 19.7 43.4 53.8 45.3 46.7
Average dryland area planted 1.90 1.34 1.16 1.71 1.12 1.90
% hh with molapo fields 6.0 55.6 32.1 21.2 30.2 27.8
Average molapo area planted 2.11 0.93 0.83 0.75 0.41 2.11
Dryland area planted (ha) 4 435 543 617 5 899 102 11 596
Molapo area planted (ha) 447 1 063 327 1 019 25 2 881
Total area planted (ha) 4 882 1 606 944 6 918 127 14 477
The main crops grown are maize, millet and sorghum, which are sown together with a variety of other
crops such as groundnuts and beans. Millet and maize are staple foods, whereas sorghum is grown
mainly for brewing beer. Maize is more reliant on water, and tends to fail in poor rainfall years. Maize
production is considerably higher on molapo fields than on dryland fields (Table 5-11, Table 5-12),
while millet, sorghum and bean production is generally higher on dryland fields. Sweet reed
production also tends to be higher on molapo fields. Average yields reported in this study were low,
largely because of the drought and the fact that many households reported failed crops.
Nevertheless, the grain yields found in this study were in the same order of magnitude of yields
reported in Rashem (1988; about 250kg/ha) and for Ngamiland (Agricultural statistics 1968-1998:
about 142 kg/ha).
Table 5-11 Average production per ha of the main crops grown in dryland fields in 2005. Note that the total of all
crops is per ha.
Dryland crop
Unit
Approx. Price
Per unit
Zone 1
N
Zone 2
W
Zone 3
SW
Zone 4
SE
Zone 5
C
Maize Kg 2.4 74.16 152.35 53.25 73.37 48.32
Millet Kg 0.8 74.90 - 0.43 18.91 3.74
Sorghum Kg 0.8 67.75 - 9.81 29.28 4.46
Groundnuts Kg 5.0 7.72 3.43 - 6.85 -
Beans Kg 5.0 10.19 21.79 6.28 15.23 1.69
Melons each 10.0 3.05 2.84 9.21 1.35 0.45
Pumpkins each 12.5 7.09 19.40 0.17 2.93 -
Sweet reeds each 1.0 68.33 31.11 394.01 58.50 147.37
Inputs into farming are small. Most fields are ploughed with donkeys, and relatively few use oxen
(Table 5-13), these households requiring a plough with yokes and chains. A fair proportion of
households use tractors for ploughing, but a significant proportion use only hoes. Some of the
required seed input (10kg per ha) is obtained free from the government, and implements such as
33