13th Annual International Management Conference Proceeding

association and Sub country extension staff. Traditional methods of farming have persisted whose output is
very low.
The findings further indicated that 89% of the respondents use only family labour. This implies that those
without enough skills have to keep on using traditional methods of farming which yield low returns. The
reason for failure to hire labour was attributed to low income and small scale farming where employing
agricultural experts does not pay.
Traditional division of labour
The traditional division of labour prohibits agricultural outputs because a lot of work is left to women. The
table below summarizes the findings on sharing the agricultural activities.
Table 3.4: A Table showing the Division of labour in Agriculture
Activity Men Women Children Hired Labour
Bush clearing 102 45 08 45
Bush burning 133 37 08 -
First ploughing 40 113 - 37
Second ploughing 38 112 08 12
Sowing 88 102 02 08
Weeding 12 175 05 10
Harvesting 60 125 02 13
Drying crops 98 94 08 -
Building granaries 182 02 10 6
Selling the produce 163 32 04 01
Source: Primary Data
The table shows that women do most of the hardest agricultural activities such as ploughing, sowing and
weeding. Children and hired labour are not highly used in all the activities. Most farmers use hired labour
during bush clearing and first ploughing. The traditional division of labour indicates that men participate
more in bush burning building granaries and selling the produce.
Inputs
Implements
Lack of both capital and variable inputs was noted to be among the major determinants of agricultural
output. Most farmers are still using the traditional agricultural tools such as hoes and pangas. Although some
farmers have big chunks of land where tractorisation would apply, there incomes are too low to allow the use
of tractors and later alone machine operators. The major agricultural implement used is a hoe. 97.5 % of the
respondents indicated that they use a hoe. This is because hoes are cheap and easy to use.
Crops grown
Respondents were asked to indicate the nature of the crops grown. The 152 respondents indicated that they
grown their traditional crops because they have high nutritional content but most importantly that they do
not have side effects on their soil.
Table 3.5: A Table showing the reasons for using the traditional crops
Reasons for growing traditional crops No %
Have no side effects on soil 72 47.2
High nutritional content 50 32.8
The are cheap 12 7.8
Do not require too much labour 18 11.8
Total 152 100
Source: Primary Data
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