Table 9: Land area devoted to the cultivation of each crop

5.1.9 Land area devoted to crop cultivation (cassava, sorghum and rice). Land area in farm production is an important variable as this will determine the scale of production and to some extent the financial outcome of the business. Looking at the land areas devoted to the cultivation of crops under these three crops by participating farmers as presented in table 9, it is evidently clear that majority of them are small scale farmers as about 57% of cassava participants cultivated between 0.1-1.0, 34% cultivated between 1.1-2.0 while only about 8% cultivated cassava plot greater than 2 ha. The average land area devoted for cassava cultivation was 1.91 ha while the minimum and maximum were 4.0 ha. The result is similar in sorghum where about 65% cultivated land that were between 0.1-1.0, 16% cultivated land that were between 1.1-2.0 and about 2% cultivated land that were greater than 2 ha. The average land area devoted to sorghum cultivation was 1.66 ha while the minimum and maximum were 1.0 and 5.0 respectively.

Table 9: Land area devoted to the cultivation of each crop Size of land for cultivation of Cassava/sorghum/rice Cassava Sorghum Rice

0.1-0.5 0.51-1.0 1.1-1.5 1.51-2.0 >2.0 Average Min 24(40)

25(31.25) 5(6.25) 10(16.67) 43(53.75) 31(38.75) 8(13.33) 9(11.25) 10(12.5) 13(21.67) 5(6.25) 5(8.33) 1(1.25 11(13.75) 24(30)

1.91 1.66 2.1

0.77 1.0 0.4

Max 4.00 5.0 6.6

Figures in parentheses are percentages

5.1.10 Years of experience in farming Finally in this section, we look at the year of experience of these participating farmers in the crops they are engaged in as presented in table 10. For cassava participants, about 43% of them have between 1-10 years of experience in cassava production, about 43% have 11-20 years of experience, and about 12% have 21-30 years of experience in cassava production while very few, about 12% have over 30 years of experience in cassava production. The average years of experience in cassava production was about 13 years which showed that these farmers have been familiar with cassava production and probably, using modern production technology may be the issues that needs to be addressed under this very important project.

The pattern of farming experience is also similar in sorghum production as about 41% of the participating farmers have 1-10 years of experience as shown in table 10, about 29% have between 11-20 years of experience in sorghum production, about 19% have between 21-30 years of experience in sorghum production while about 14% have over 30 years of experience in sorghum production. On the overall, the average years of experience in sorghum production was