Introduction

Agriculture is the most important economic activity in the district and is the main employment avenue for many people in the district. An agricultural household is defined as where at least, one person in the household is engaged in any type of farming activity, namely crop framing , tree growing, livestock rearing and fish farming (GSS, 2012). The objective of this chapter is to analyze, the agricultural activities of households.

Households in Agriculture

The district has 61.8 percent of households in agriculture. With respect to locality of residence, approximately 36 percent of households in urban areas are into agriculture whereas in the rural areas approximately 36 percent of households are into agriculture activities. The proportions of agricultural and non-agricultural households in the district are the same for both the rural and urban areas as illustrated in the figure.

Types of Farming Activities
 
Discussion in this section focuses on four types of agricultural activities: crop farming, tree growing, livestock rearing and fish farming. Approximately 92 percent of households in the district are into crop farming, 35 percent into livestock rearing and only 0.3 percent and 0.1 percent households are into tree planting and fish farming respectively. In the urban areas, 87.2 percent of households are into crop farming and 30.0 percent are into livestock rearing and less than one percent into tree planting and fish farming; compared with 93.8 percent of households in rural area in crop farming, 36.7 percent in livestock rearing and tree planting while fish farming accounts for less than one percent.

Types of Livestock

Livestock rearing is the second most important agricultural activity in the district. Though it occurs in both urban and rural areas, is the concentration is in the rural areas. Table 7.2 shows the type of livestock reared and keepers in the district, there are 202,427 livestock reared with 8,383 keepers. Each keeper has an average of 24 livestock.

Among the birds, there are approximately 67,983 chickens, nearly 9,000 guinea fowls, about 3,254 ducks and 847 doves. In the ruminants category there are 41,975 cattle, 38,223 goats and 25,374 sheep. Among other livestock reported are pigs, grass-cutters and rabbits with 10,630, 383 and 343 respectively.