Type of agricultural activities

Table 7.1 and Figure 7.1 present households by agricultural activities and locality. Crop farming dominates the types of agricultural activities engaged in by households in the district, accounting for 93.2 percent of the total. This is followed by livestock rearing with 47.9 percent. Tree planting and fish farming together account for 0.7 percent of the agricultural activities in the district. Although similar pattern of agricultural activities can be observed in the two types of localities, crop farming and livestock rearing are more common in the rural areas (93.6% and 51.6% respectively) than urban areas (92.1% and 37.8% respectively).

Distribution of Livestock, Other Animals Reared and Keepers

Livestock rearing is the second most important agricultural activity in the district. The 2010 PHC counts a total of 147,430 livestock of different species in the District. Of the total livestock reared in the district, chicken constitutes more than half (57.2%) of the total livestock population, followed by goats (17.5%) and sheep (7.4%). The average number of animal per keeper is 15 for the district.

In the bird category, the commonest livestock reared in the district are chicken, ducks, ostriches and turkeys. There are 84,283 chickens with an average of 19 birds per keeper, 2,372 ducks with an average of 11 birds per keeper, 628 ostriches with an average of 29 birds per keeper and 621 turkeys with an average 11 birds per keeper.

Among the ruminants, the commonest animals reared are goats, cattle and sheep. The census counts 25,831 goats with an average of 9 animals per keeper, 8,283 cattle with an average of 30 animals per keeper and 10,933 sheep with an average of 8 animals per keeper.