Introduction

Agriculture plays a crucial role in the economy of developing countries, and provides the main source of food, income and employment to their rural populations. This chapter presents information on households in agriculture, types of farming and distribution of livestock in the District.

Households in Agriculture

The distribution of households which engage in agricultural activities is presented in Table 7.1. As Table 7.1 depicts that approximately 81 percent (80.8%) households are engaged in agriculture activities. Out of the total number of 18, 098 households, 14, 622 households engaged in agricultural activities.

From Table 7.1, crop farming (96.6%) is the main type of agricultural activity and/or practice in the District. This is followed by livestock rearing which records 7,304 households representing 50 percent. Proportions of households engage in tree planting (0.6%) and fish farming (0.0%) constitutes less than 1 percent

Rural Households in Agriculture

Table 7.1 displays the proportion of rural households engaged in agriculture. Approximately 82 percent (81.4%) of rural households engage in agricultural activities. Thus, crop farming is the dominant agricultural activity among rural households (96.5%). This is followed by livestock rearing (52.2%).

Types of Farming

Table 7.1 further indicates the distribution of households’ farming activities in four major categories and by locality of residence (urban, rural). The activities are crop farming, tree growing, livestock rearing and fish farming.

Crop farming (96.6%) and livestock rearing (50%) are the predominant types of farming activities among the others. Fish farming is the least type of farming in the District with only 5 households (0.0%) engaged in it.

It is prudent to note that there are disparities in these activities between the localities. Rural households have high numbers in all the types than their urban counterparts. Table 7.1 indicates that whiles 13,691 rural households are into all the forms of farming activities, urban households are 931.

 Distribution of Livestock and Keepers

Table 7.2 shows the types and distribution of livestock reared in the District. There are 164,535 livestock with 12,778 keepers. The livestock can be categorised into mammals, birds, fishes, among others. There are 33,170 goats, 12,348 sheep, 2,137 pigs and 684 cattle which are the major mammals reared in the District. In the bird category, there are approximately 107,102 chickens, 2,977 ducks, 1,349 turkey, 610 guinea fowls and 426 doves. The least kept livestock is beehives (4).

Table 2.1 shows that the highest proportion of keepers (5, 597) are those into chicken rearing. This is followed by goat (4,290) and sheep (1,921) respectively. However, inland fishing has the least keeper (1).