Hoe Cultivation Research Articles

Neglected Archive: Museum Collections of Locally Forged Hoes as Evidence of Contributions by Women to the Agricultural Economy of the Phongolo-Mzimkhulu Region Prior to the Twentieth Century

A 2018 survey conducted in eight KwaZulu-Natal museums determined that field-hoes, called amageja in Zulu, constitute less than one-fifth of locally forged metallurgical items in those archives, while the rest are weapons. Crucially, only two displays related to either Iron Age history or the Zulu Kingdom in the museums that were evaluated provide contextual information on field-hoes. In this article I contend that gender-based divisions of labour in nineteenth-century African communities of this region have affected attitudes towards the tools they used. As groups of objects are generally assembled within collections in relation to other categories, Bourdieu suggested that the value of an artefact can only be established after investigation of the ‘history of the procedure of canonisation and hierarchisation’ of any particular object type. Investigating the place of amageja in museums, this research considers the largely overlooked cultural and economic significance of such items, including evidence of attitudes towards agriculture preserved in oral testimony from African sources and Zulu-language idioms. The article argues that museum collections of hoes form a neglected archive of ‘hoe cultivation’, or subsistence crop production based on the use of manual implements, within the Phongolo-Mzimkhulu geographic region that roughly approximates to the modern territory of KwaZulu-Natal.

A Cloud-Based In-Field Fleet Coordination System for Multiple Operations

In large-scale arable farming, multiple sequential operations involving multiple machines must be carried out simultaneously due to restrictions of short time windows. However, the coordination and planning of multiple sequential operations is a nontrivial task for farmers, since each operation may have its own set of operational features, e.g., operating width and turning radius. Taking the two sequential operations—hoeing cultivation and seeding—as an example, the seeder has double the width of the hoeing cultivator, and the seeder must remain idle while waiting for the hoeing cultivator to finish two rows before it can commence its seeding operation. A flow-shop working mode can coordinate multiple machines in multiple operations within a field when different operations have different implement widths. To this end, an auto-steering-based collaborative operating system for fleet management (FMCOS) was developed to realize an in-field flow-shop working mode, which is often adopted by the scaled agricultural machinery cooperatives. This paper proposes the structure and composition of the FMCOS, the method of operating strip segmenting, and a new algorithm for strip state updating between successive field operations under an optimal strategy for waiting time conditioning between sequential operations. A simulation model was developed to verify the state-updating algorithm. Then, the prototype system of FMCOS was combined with auto-steering systems on tractors, and the collaborative operating system for the server was integrated. Three field experiments of one operation, two operations, and three operations were carried out to verify the functionality and performance of FMCOS. The results of the experiment showed that the FMCOS could coordinate in-field fleet operations while improving both the job quality and the efficiency of fleet management by adopting the flow-shop working mode.

The Determinants and Extent of Crop Diversification Among Smallholder Farmers: A Case Study of Southern Province Zambia

Agriculture is vital to Zambia’s economic development and is a mainstay for the livelihoods of a large proportion of the population. Agricultural production is mainly dependent on rain-fed hoe cultivation with maize as the principal staple food crop. About 18 percent of national maize production comes from Zambia’s Southern province. In order to improve food security and minimize risks associated with heavy dependence on maize, the government of Zambia has been promoting crop diversification. This study analyzed the determinants of crop diversification as well as the factors influencing the extent of crop diversification by smallholder farmers in Southern province. The study used secondary data from the Central Statistical Office of Zambia. Results from a double-hurdle model analysis indicates that landholding size, fertilizer quantity, distance to market, and the type of tillage mechanism adopted have a strong influence on whether a farmer practices crop diversification. Our findings have important implications for policies that are designed to enhance crop diversification. In particular, our results suggest the need for government to consider undertaking policies that will enhance farmers’ access to and control over land, that will provide farmers with improved access to agricultural implements like ploughs, and that will bring trading markets closer to farmers.

Marriage and contraception among the Pare of northern Tanzania.

The purpose of the research reported here is to examine the connection between contraception and those aspects of a woman's position that are related to her marriage. The research was conducted in two villages among the Pare of northern Tanzania where a shift from hoe cultivation as primary occupation to wage labour has brought about major changes in social relations. The major hypothesis is that a change from a 'traditional' marital union to a 'companionate' marriage is instrumental in the acceptance of contraception and in lowering fertility. The latter type of relationship between marital partners is related to the status of women. The research methodology consisted of a combination of an ethnographic study, demographic surveys and in-depth interviews. Findings show that approximately half of the women in this community ever used contraception. Of current users, a third are sterilized and half are using a modern reversible method. The determining factor for using modern reversible methods is the nature of the conjugal union.

Population nucleation, intensive agriculture, and environmental degradation: The Cahokia example

Cahokia, the largest pre-European settlement in North America, was situated on the Middle Mississippi River floodplain and flourished for approximately three hundred years from the 10th century AD onward. The site was favorably located from an environmental standpoint, being proximal to a diversity of microhabitats including expanses of open water and marshes from which the essential, renewable fish protein could be procured. More importantly, the largest local zone of soils characterized as optimal for prehistoric hoe cultivation lay immediately to the east. Here, on the floodplain and along its bordering alluvial fans, the large maize outfields were situated, while the multi-crop house gardens were placed within the habitation zone on soils that had often been culturally enriched by prior occupation. As successful as this strategy might have been for small, dispersed populations in such a plentiful environment, nucleation of large numbers of people at Cahokia provided a different adaptive context that ultimately led to ruinous consequences. The seeds for the city's destruction centered anthropogenically produced environmental degradation. Demands on wood resources for fuel and construction were enormous and agricultural field clearance was in forested rather than prairie settings. The resultant watershed deforestation produced greatly increased rates of erosion, runoff, and unseasonable downstream flooding during the summer growing season. The economic and social consequences of declining production and localized crop failures proved disastrous for this city of farmers.

The Cultural Construction of Childhood

The article examines the concept of childhood in an African society and tracks a contemporary shift in thinking about what a child is when a major sociocultural transformation effects a large segment of that population. The Pare, traditionally patrilineal highland cultivators, have recently experienced a change in their subsistence base from hoe cultivation to wage labor. This brought about a shift away from reliance on lineage authority to more couple-centered relations in some couples. A consequence of this has been a reduction in fertility in these couples and a view on children which departs from the traditional one. The article compares the daily lives of the children and the two types of parents' conceptualizations of childhood.

Influence of residue mulch, tillage and cultural practices on weed mass and corn yield from three field experiments

In many countries the availability of labour is one of the major constraining factors limiting the effectiveness of small-scale farmers as producers. A reduction or shift in the timing of labour requirements for land preparation and weed control can be of tremendous help to these resource-poor farmers. Field experiments were conducted under conventional and minimum tillage systems, to study the influence of various combinations of residue mulch, hoe weeding, pre-emergence herbicide, intercultivation and smother cropping, on production of weed mass and corn ( Zea mays L.) grain yield. Residue mulch, pre-emergence herbicide and early inter-cultivation practices reduced weed mass production and enhanced crop yield. These practices could prove to be potential alternatives to early weeding undertaken 3–4 weeks after corn planting. From the regression equation it was estimated that 20.4 kg ha −1 of residue mulch was needed to reduce weed mass by 1 kg ha −1. There was a significant negative correlation between the weed mass and corn grain yield of all the experiments. Linear regression of crop yield over weed mass yielded slopes that varied between −0.851 and −1.691 kg kg −1. Hoe cultivation of land produced no extra grain yield in comparison with no cultivation. A combination of residue mulch and minimum tillage appeared to be a practicable alternative to the conventional system of land preparation and may be helpful in eliminating the need for early weeding.

Constraints on Oxen Cultivation in the Sahel: Reply

American Journal of Agricultural EconomicsVolume 67, Issue 3 p. 686-687 Comments and Replie Constraints on Oxen Cultivation in the Sahel: Reply Christopher L. Delgado, Christopher L. Delgado Coordinator for African Research Intemational Food Policy Research Institute, Washington DCSearch for more papers by this authorJohn McIntire, John McIntire economist International Livestock Center for Africa, Addis Ababa, EthiopiaSearch for more papers by this author Christopher L. Delgado, Christopher L. Delgado Coordinator for African Research Intemational Food Policy Research Institute, Washington DCSearch for more papers by this authorJohn McIntire, John McIntire economist International Livestock Center for Africa, Addis Ababa, EthiopiaSearch for more papers by this author First published: 01 August 1985 https://doi.org/10.2307/1241097Citations: 1AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article.Citing Literature Volume67, Issue3August 1985Pages 686-687 RelatedInformation

Energy inputs and outputs of subsistence cropping systems in the tropics

Published data are examined to illustrate aspects of the relation between human and draft animal energy input and crop energy output in tropical subsistence cropping systems. For rainfed hoe cultivation of cereals the normal range of energy output/input ratio is 10–20 : 1; for non-cereal energy crop production it may be appreciably higher. However, such a range does not necessarily represent a secure food energy balance when account is taken of the total food energy requirements of the farm family and of seasonal variation in crop yeild. Some aspects of human and animal energy inputs for rainfed and irrigated crop production with draft animals are discussed.

Influence of VAMA and of Depth of Rotary Hoeing upon Infiltration of Irrigation Water

AbstractLong continued inter‐row cultivation and passage of vehicles may adversely affect soil physical properties. The influence upon infiltration in peach orchards of the incorporation of vinyl acetate maleic anhydride (VAMA) with sandy loams which had been harmed by such treatments was studied during three irrigation seasons after a single addition of the VAMA polymer in 1953.Treatments were: rotary hoe cultivation to depths of 1, 6, and 16 inches, with and without polymer incorporation; soil then undisturbed and kept weed‐free. Polymer influence persisted through three seasons. Average depths of infiltered water after 1.6 hours for all cultivation depths were: without polymer, 3.1 in.; with polymer, 6.2 in. Where polymer was incorporated, increased cultivation depth gave increased infiltration; without polymer, cultivation depth appeared to have no appreciable effect. Supplementary measurements following tractor passage in 1955 showed average decrease in infiltration at 1.6 hours from 7.0 in. (without tractor) to 2.4 in. (with tractor).Dispersing tendency, density, and moisture characteristics are presented for soil cores taken from one orchard at the end of the third season. The increased aggregate stability in water and lowered bulk density of cores taken from soils receiving polymer, persisted until the end of the experiment. Treatments considerably influenced moisture retention and hence pore volume at tensions less than 1/5 atm. but, with the exception of the tractor‐compacted, deeply‐tilled, with‐polymer treatment, they had little effect upon these properties at higher tensions. The cumulative depths of infiltered water were clearly associated with changes in volume of coarser pores.