Introduction

The 2010 PHC collected data on agricultural activities; namely, crop farming, tree growing, livestock rearing and fish farming. Within the context of the 2010 PHC, an agricultural household is defined as a household in which at least one person is engaged in any type of farming activity, namely crop farming, tree growing, livestock rearing and fish farming (GSS, 2013). This chapter discusses households that are into agriculture and the type of farming activities they practice.

Households in Agriculture

Figure 7.1 shows the proportion of households engaged in agricultural activities by locality of residence. Slightly more than eight out of 10 households (81.2%) in the District are engaged in agricultural activities with 86.6% of rural households and 63.4 percent of urban households involving with agricultural activities.

Types of Farming Activities

Table 7.1 shows the types of agricultural activities in the District shows the households by agricultural activities and locality in the District. The activities are crop farming, tree planting, livestock rearing and fish farming. From the Table, 8,385 agricultural households in the District are engaged in various agricultural activities. There are 8,385 households in agriculture; however, 11,393 agricultural activities are reported. This implies that some households are engaged in more than one activity. On the whole each household undertakes an average of 1.2 different agricultural activities. Crop farming is nearly universal (98.4%). This is not surprising for a predominantly rural district where non-agricultural activities are  minimal. The second most prominent activity, engaged in by 35.9 percent of agricultural households, is livestock rearing. Fish farming and tree growing are nearly non-existent in the District with only 0.6 percent and 1.0 percent of households engaged in each.

With reference to urban/rural communities, a similar pattern is observed with the two traditional agriculture activities of crop farming and livestock rearing dominating. Almost all agricultural households in urban (96.5%) and rural (98.8%) communities are engaged in crop farming. More households in rural (37.8%) than urban areas (27.4%) are into livestock rearing. The non-traditional activities of tree planting and fish farming are negligible in both urban and rural agricultural households. Twice as many of the few households in fish farming are in urban areas (1.2%) compared with rural areas (0.5%). The proportion of households engaged in tree planting is the same among both urban and rural dwellers (1.0%).

Distribution of livestock, animals reared and keepers

Livestock rearing is the second most important activity among agricultural households. Table 7.3 shows the distribution of livestock and keepers in the District. Keepers can be engaged in one or more livestock depending upon several factors such as the area, availability of funds and market. Chicken is the most common livestock kept by households in the District. The District has 85,962 birds and 2,261 keepers translating to an average of 38 birds per keeper. Chicken constitute about two-thirds (67.1%) of all livestock kept by householders in the District.

Goats follow in the second position (17,943 or 14.0 percent) of the animals. Goats are reared by 1,282 or 28.0 percent of keepers. The average number per keeper is 14 goats. The third significant animal reared is sheep (7,776 or 6.1 percent); 551 or 12.0 percent of the keepers are into rearing sheep with an average of 14 sheep per keeper.