A presentation by Sabine Homann-Kee Tui, Patricia Masikati, Andre van Rooyen, Daniel Rodriguez, Peter de Voil, Godfrey Manyawu 4th International Symposium for Farming Systems Design, Lanzhou, China, 19-22 Aug 2013

1. Assessing options for crop-livestock intensification in
semi-arid Southern Zimbabwe:
household typologies and community visions
Sabine Homann-Kee Tui, Patricia Masikati, Andre van Rooyen,
Daniel Rodriguez, Peter de Voil, Godfrey Manyawu
4th International Symposium for Farming Systems Design, Lanzhou, China, 19-22 Aug 2013

2. Declining per capita food production
in Southern Africa
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
Index
Production trends in Southern Africa
(PIN, 2004-06 base)
Net Production Index Number Per capita Production Index Number
Key challenges
• Resource constraints:
> 80% of rural
population below
poverty line
• Limited biomass: one
growing season, semi-
arid rainfed, poor
inherent soil fertility
• Extraction of land and
soils (degradation)
• Poor market linkages
and support services
(enabling structures)

3. Stepping stones towards increasing agricultural
production and improving food security (1)
Hanging in
Stepping up
Stepping out
Resources
Profit/resilience
After Dorward et al., (2010)
Identifying household typologies
Working Hypothesis 1:
Farmers have different
opportunities to adopt
technologies and intensify
production systems.
Better understanding farmers
resource endowments and
livelihood strategies may help
targeting development
interventions.

4. Stepping stones towards increasing agricultural
production and improving food security (2)LowHigh
Low High
Production technology development,
dissemination and use
Marketdevelopment,efficiency
andparticipation
Fully integrated market
oriented system
Source: Adapted from Dorward et al., 2002
Working hypothesis 2:
Pathways for sustainable
intensification are context specific.
Intervention options need to
integrate market development AND
production enhancing technologies.
Participatory approaches can help
identifying preferable intervention
options.
Identifying pathways for sustainable intensification

5. The case: mixed smallholder farming systems
in semi-arid Zimbabwe
Farming system
characteristics
Nkayi Gwanda
Agro-ecology
• Rain (mm, (CV))
• Main soils
656 (33)
Kalahari
434 (23)
Sands
Densities
• Human (n km2)
• Cattle (TLU km2)
• Goats (TLU km2)
19
12
1
10
8
1
Main crops Maize, small grains,
legumes
Main livestock Cattle, goats
Market access + ++
Extension + +

6. Male
Tree Diagram for 228 Cases
Ward`s method
Euclidean distances
524.000000
473.000000
587.000000
694.000000
467.000000
370.000000
507.000000
497.000000
617.000000
365.000000
660.000000
679.000000
358.000000
551.000000
420.000000
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
LinkageDistance
Age
Distance to the market
Land
Maize production
#Shoats
PCA to
identify
redundant
variables
Clustering
of
households
Description
of
functional
typologies
Data clean
up and
selection of
variables
Desktop
Expert
knowledge
Multivariate
statistics
Expert
knowledge
Participatory
Defining challenges and
opportunities
Iterative process of
solutions & adjustments
Participatory
Household
survey
Visualizing current and
desirable states of
agricultural systems
Targeting and
testing preferable
options
Methodology

7. Results
Principal components
Important factors Nkayi (n=160) Gwanda (n=90)
Livestock (cattle) ✔ ✔
Education ✔ ✔
Years in village ✔
Distance to markets ✔
Off farm income ✔
Family size / labor ✔ ✔
Cultivated land ✔ ✔
Use of fertilizer ✔
Use of manure ✔
Household assets ✔
Age ✔ ✔
Livestock (goats) ✔ ✔
16%
6% each
27%
14% each

8. Nkayi: Household typologies (1)
Important factors
Structural household typologies: resource endowment (median)
Household types
Share population (%)
C1 Young family
22
C2 Stepping up
30
C3 Grey heads
34
C4 Champions
14
Cattle (TLU)
Goats (TLU)
Cultivated land (ha)
0
0
1
2.1
0.3
1.6
2.1
0.2
1.7
6.7
0.5
1.7
Age of HHH (yrs)
Education (yrs)
Local knowledge (yrs)
Off-farm income (%)
Family size (AAME)
Assets (index)
38
8
22
40
4.2
2
47
8
37
50
4.4
7
64
3
47
60
4.9
3
54
7
41
35
4.3
8
Fertilizer use (kg/ha)
Manure use (kg/ha)
Use of hybrids
0
0
No
0
0
Yes
0
0
No
10.7
1364
Yes
Diversified production
Food secure (months)
Cash income (U$S/yr)
No
2-8
327
No
3-11
445
No
3-10
485
Yes
3-12
569

9. Nkayi: Household typologies (2)
Assets and reinvestments

10. C4 C3 C1 C2
Age of household head / me
Householdassets
C4
C3
C1
C2
Household
establishment
Household
maturity
Household
dissolu on
Nkayi: Household typologies (3)
Predispositions to invest

11. Cluster 4: Champions
Cluster 1: Young family
Cluster 2: Stepping up
Hanging in
Stepping up
Stepping out
Resources
Profit/resilience
Stepping up
Cluster 3: Grey heads
Stepping out
Nkayi: Household typologies (4)
Predispositions to invest
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
0 1 2 3 4
Averagemonthsoffoodsecurity
Area planted to maize
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
0 2 4 6
Averagemonthsfoodsecurity
Area planted to maize
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
0 1 2 3 4 5
Averagemonthsfoodsecurity
Area planted to maize
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Avergemonthsfoodsecurity
Area planted to maize
Hanging in

12. Nkayi: community visioning
Entry points for sustainable intensification
Boosting agricultural production through
better crop livestock integration
1. Intensify and diversify crop production
• Increase legume and vegetable
production
• Improve manure management
2. Improve cattle production, offtake and
quality
• Increase crop residue and fodder
production and feeding
• Mechanize crop production to release
cattle for the market
3. Improve market infrastructure and
organization (“also for goats”)

13. Important factors Structural household typologies: resource endowment (median)
Household types
Share population (%)
C1 Subsistence
Old and female
32
C2 Subsistence
Young and female
22
C3 Grey heads
Richest males
23
C4 Younger male
Goats specialized
14
Cattle (TLU)
Goats (TLU)
Cultivated land (ha)
1.4
1.5
1.4
0 (1.4)
1.2 (5.0)
1.7 (2.1)
14.7
5.0
3.1
0
4.0
1.0
Age of HHH (yrs)
Education (yrs)
Family size (AAME)
60
3
3.8
41 (36)
7 (11)
3.0 (3.8)
59
5
4.5
47
9
7.2
Off-take goats (%)
Maize yield (kg/ha)
Sorghum yield (kg/ha)
9
0
40
8.5 (0)
0 (180)
0 (190)
15
0
55
10.2
20
50
Food secure (months) 4 5 (7) 6 7
Gwanda: Household typologies (1)
Important factors

14. Household
maturity
Household
establishment
Household
dissolu on
Age of household head / me
Householdassets
C1C2
C2-defacto
C3C4
C2 C1 C3 C4
Gwanda: Household typologies (2)
Family phases

15. 0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Averagemonthsoffoodsecurity
Area planted to maize
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Averagemonthsoffoodsecurity
Area planted to maize
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Averagemonthsoffoodsecurity
Area planted to maize
Cluster 2-defacto
Cluster 2: Hanging in
Cluster 1: Hanging in
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5
Averagemonthsoffoodsecurity
Area planted to maize
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
Averagemonthsoffoodsecurity Area planted to maize
Cluster 4: Young males
Hanging in
Stepping up
Stepping out
Resources
Profit/resilience
Stepping up
Cluster 3: Grey heads
Stepping out
Gwanda: Household typologies (3)
Predispositions to invest

16. Gwanda: community visioning
Entry points for sustainable intensification
Promoting livestock markets to
provide incentives for farmers
1. Strengthen market development
• Improve sale pen management,
auctioning, grading
• Improve access to inputs and
market information
• Enhance fodder production and
pen feeding for market oriented
production
2. Increase crop production
• Improve soil fertility through better
manure management
• Water harvesting technologies
• Pests and disease control
• Identify opportunities for sorghum

17. Conclusions
•More market oriented crop livestock production is smart
for sustainable intensification processes
•Strong growth potential + diversity of farming systems
 multiple pathways and transitions towards improved
systems
•Farmers have different predisposition to invest
household typologies can be useful to define context
specific interventions in an iterative process
• Involving communities and stakeholders to define such
transitions is critical to enhance the local capacity to adjust

18. Acknowledgements
This work is financed by ACIAR.
It is implemented in a partnership with
ILRI, CIMMYT, ICRISAT, CSIRO and
QAAFI.
It contributes to the CGIAR Research
Program on Dryland Systems.
Data were used from previous CGIAR-SLP.