Household composition and agricultural technology in Zambia
Oberschall, A.R.
Social Science 72(1): 65-68
1987
ISSN/ISBN: 0037-7848 PMID: 12341221 Document Number: 348130
While a small percentage of Zambia's farming households practice advanced agricultural technics and produce significant yields, the majority of Zambians have barely broken out of subsistence level farming. Government programs to assist the small farmer have proven unsuccessful largely because of economic pessure to keep family members on the farm as laborers. A household's size, as well as the age and sex of its members, are crucial factors in moving the rural population toward agricultural development. A large family is clearly an asset to Zambian farmers. At peak points in the agricultural season, it is difficult to hire helpers since everyone is working on their own land, even the poor villagers. Because young men and women from poorer households tend to migrate to the cities, these families are much smaller and have fewer males than the more prosperous families. Although a Zambian man's ideal strategy is to marry several wives and raise a large number of children to ensure a labor supply, this is difficult to carry out. Only after achieving a certain minimal technological level can a farming household support a large enough group to continue to develop. The agricultural development that has taken place so far in Zambia is largely the outcome of demonstration effects and, more recently, the fruit of family remittances from the cities.