After livestock and field crops, piece work is the next most important income source, followed by a group of activities that we have grouped into the category “other”.It is important to note that the contribution of livestock to income is largest among food secure households with an even larger prominence in the non-hotspot district. Piece work, on the other hand, is clearly most prominent among the extremely food insecure and most visible in the hotspot districts. Compared to all other food security groups, food insecure households appeared to have the most diversified set of income sources, with a significantly larger weight on numerous other minor sources collectively referred to as ‘other’ than any other group of households.
This study uses qualitative research techniques to identify the livelihood activities and to determine the position of livestock in the hierarchy of those activities among households in livestock-rearing communities of Southern Zambia. Seasonality analysis was also done to identify the shifts in relative importance of the activities across the different times of the year. The results indicate that, when livelihood is broadly defined, nft hydroponic livestock rearing is second only to field crop production both in terms of prevalence and relative importance . However, livestock and livestock-related products and services are by far the most important source of income. Livestock as a source of income is especially important among the food secure households, who earn more than half of their income through sales of livestock, livestock products and livestock-related services , compared to less than 40 percent among other food security groups.
That livestock is important as sources of livelihoods and,especially, income identifies the need to identify and implement interventions that could enhance livestock ownership and productivity. While food secure households are more commercial in approach, less food secure households have their sustenance and subsistence in mind. This inherent dichotomy in approach to livelihood needs to be reflected in intervention design and implementation. The peculiar geography of Cameroon makes it called “Africa in miniature”; the country has an important ecological diversity to find within it all the environmental varieties of the African continent. A study of the operating model of Cameroonian agriculture reveals the existence of diverse farming techniques and agricultural typologies that perfectly match this environmental richness.This diversity of Cameroon’s agriculture gives the agricultural sector enormous economic potential, which makes it a particularly important sector in the promotion of development.
In fact, the agricultural sector in Cameroon represents about 60% of the active population, with a contribution of about 30% of the GDP and about 16% of the budget revenues of the country.This sector has always been considered as the main provider of wealth, which is why the speeches of the various Cameroonian political authorities have always been considered as a priority in the country’s economy. But the fact is, in general,a relative stagnation of the agricultural performance of the country was noticeable.On the external level, this can be explained by constraints related to the international environment, particularly via the volatility of the prices of export products, whereas internally it depends fundamentally on the policy measures implemented, their coherence, and their phasing, as much as their deadlines.The crises of the mid-1980s and recently the 2008, sparked renewed interest in the predominant role played by the agricultural sector in developing countries.Cameroon has agricultural crops. These are divided between perennial agricultural crops and food crops for local consumption and, to a lesser extent, for export. In the category of perennial crops, the main products selected according to their economic importance are: cocoa,coffee, rubber,banana, cotton, tea; food production is more diversified; Without pretending to be exhaustive, we can mention in this category: groundnuts, plantains, tubers,fruits, maize, potatoes and other tropical products.
The analysis of the role of agriculture in economic activity is of major interest,because of its contribution to economic growth and the consideration of the influence of internal, external and institutional factors stemming from the in classical literature, the architecture and credibility of institutions are also a major determinant of agent incentives and therefore economic performance. Indeed,the main objectives of agricultural progress are known; increasing yields by increasing the volume of production and increasing productivity.