Small Holdings

Small Holding (Arable Farming System)

Small holdings are now the main form of agriculture in some TRF countries. e.g. In West Africa, a total of 80% of the economically active population is engaged in small holding subsistence farming of various kinds.

A. Characteristics

Field size is small.
Primitive farming implements are still used. e.g. hoes, wooden ploughs drawn by buffaloes, etc.
The fields are fragmented and considerably separated (about 2 to 11 km) from one another. Such fragmentation and smallness of the fields are mainly due to the difficulty of clearing large sites with primitive implements and methods.
Crops grown - small holdings are involved in mixed farming of crops which do not need much human care, although wet rice is now increasingly important.

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There are 3 major groups of crops grown:

rice (cereal crop) - wet rice is common in the coastal regions, dry rice is mainly grown on the Guinea Highlands
bananas–widely planted around coastal or riverine villages in southern West Africa.
root crops–Cassava is the most important root crop as it does not have strict soil requirements.

B. Impact of small-holding on the Landscape

Since the farm implements are primitive, and the population pressure on the land is not too great, small holdings do not have too much destructive effect on the landscape.

The more noticeable effects include clearing of forests along the more accessible sites such as along the major rivers and soil erosion induced by the cultivation of upland rice on steep slopes