Aetrdp Baseline Survey of Farm Households in Project Locations
Australia East Timor Rural Development Program: This is a summary only of the Baseline Survey results for one of three program districts – Summaries were prepared for Aileu, Bobonaro (this summary), and Viqueque Districts.
AETRDP BASELINE SURVEY OF FARM HOUSEHOLDS IN PROJECT LOCATIONS
Summary of key findings: BOBONARO DISTRICT
Section 1: General information
This summary is for the Suco of Leber, Raeheu, Rairobo and Saburai. [A complete set of data tables is available in the Baseline Survey of Farm Households in Project Locations, District and Suco Level Data, July 2002].
Section 2: Household composition and activity
The population contains similar numbers of men and women, evenly distributed across age classes.
5% of those 18 years of age and over have off-farm employment; in this group there are more men than women.
17% of those 18 years of age and over do not work on-farm.
56% of men and women, 18 years of age or older, work full-time on-farm. Of this group, 70% are men and 30% are women.
27% of men and women, 18 years of age or older, work part-time on-farm. 80% of this group are women.
80% of 12 - 17 year olds do not work on-farm.
60% of 6 - 11 year olds are in full-time education; similar numbers are boys and girls.
70% of 12 - 17 year olds are in full-time education; slightly more of these are boys than girls.
7.4% of 18 - 45 year olds are in full-time education, but most of these are men.
The average household has 5.4 people; half are men and half are women.
Section 3: Area and type of land used for farming
Over half households farm 2 plots of land.
A quarter of households farm 1 plot of land.
22.4% of households farm 3 or more plots of land.
On average, households farm 1.5 hectares.
The most common range class for area of land used for farming (per household) is 0.5 - 1.0 ha. 32.2% of households fall within this range class.
55% of plots are under annual cropping.
15% of plots are in tree crops but Leber has proportionally more plots of this type (31%) than other suco.
Only 8% of plots are in rice paddy; but there were no survey households in Leber who had paddy.
56% of plots farmed are flat.
5.2% of plots are steep (> 25 degree slope).
68% of all plots are 100% cropped. 31% of plots are partially cropped.
60% of respondents who did not crop 100% of their land stated that the main reason for this was lack of manpower; 20% stated the reason to be land not used as part of a crop rotation
31% of households have irrigation, and of this 87% is seasonal. 15.2% of plots are irrigated.
More households in Rairobo and Saburai have irrigation than in Leber and Raeheu.
93% of all plots are cultivated by hand; only 7% of plots are cultivated using animals or a tractor.
In Leber, all households surveyed cultivated all plots by hand.
Section 4: Crop production and crop losses
Crop production and sales:
Nearly all households grow cassava and maize.
Half households grow sweet potato, taro and bananas.
11% of households in Rairobo and Saburai grow mung beans, but fewer grow mung beans in Leber and Raeheu.
11% of households grow onions, but most of these are in Raeheu (where 42% of households grow onions).
40% of households grow peanuts (but in Saburai the figure is 68% and in Leber 5%).
28% of households grow red beans (but in Leber 87% grow red beans).
29% of households grow rice, but in Raeheu the figure is 57% and in Leber 2.5%.
More Tunis is grown in Raeheu and Rairobo than in Leber and Saburai.
Nearly all households grow cassava and maize but for these crops less than 5% is sold.
A quarter of all households sell bananas and almost as many sell peanuts and red beans. These are the main cash crops in that they are sold by many farmers and earn most of the cash crop revenue.
Other cash crops are onions (grown by 10.3% of farmers) and coffee (grown by 8%); both these crops are grown predominantly for cash sale.
Although maize and cassava are staple food crops, they are sold by some farmers and for these farmers they are an important source of cash income (2.9% of farmers sell maize and 7.5% sell cassava).
The following is a “notional” crop production and crop income budget for the ‘average’ Bobonaro household. This is constructed using the mean production and income across all households in the sample rather than across only those households growing or selling the crops. Whilst there may be no households representative of this model (there are unlikely to be any households growing and selling all crops), this notional model is useful in that it gives an indication of the overall importance of each crop across all suco and all households in the survey.
Notional model of crop production and incomePER HOUSEHOLD
Production / Cash sales / Consumed / Total worth
Crop / kg / $ / $ / $
Bananas / 88 / 7.39 / 19.04 / 26.43
Betel nut / 0 / 0.04 / 0.06 / 0.09
Cassava / 257 / 3.27 / 43.88 / 47.14
Coconut / 24 / 0.09 / 2.28 / 2.36
Coffee / 16 / 5.70 / 1.21 / 6.91
Lemon / 9 / 0.76 / 1.76 / 2.52
Maize / 451 / 2.69 / 94.74 / 97.43
MungBeans / 8 / 0.69 / 1.63 / 2.32
Onions / 21 / 7.48 / 2.27 / 9.75
Pawpaw / 2 / 0.06 / 0.30 / 0.36
Peanuts / 41 / 8.55 / 11.45 / 20.01
RedBeans / 38 / 8.83 / 7.46 / 16.29
Rice / 144 / 1.38 / 17.08 / 18.46
SoyaBeans / 10 / 0.51 / 4.23 / 4.74
SweetPotato / 95 / 0.40 / 11.12 / 11.51
Taro / 81 / 0.28 / 11.98 / 12.27
Tunis / 12 / 0.69 / 4.44 / 5.13
Vegetables / 7 / 0.25 / 0.92 / 1.17
Guava / 0 / 0.01 / 0.00 / 0.01
BlackBeans / 4 / 0.16 / 1.66 / 1.82
Squash / 17 / 0.14 / 3.22 / 3.37
Lychees / 3 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00
Mango / 1 / 0.14 / 0.14 / 0.29
Totals: / $49.53 / $240.87 / $290.40
Across all households (refer the notional model above) the most important cash crops are bananas, coffee, onions, peanuts and red beans. When consumption value is considered, the most important crops include the staple food crops of maize, cassava, rice, sweet potato, and taro; the total value (cash and non-cash) of maize and cassava exceeds the value of the cash crops such as coffee, onions and peanuts.
Across all households the average income from the sale of crops is $49 per household. This is equivalent to 17% of the total value of all cropping (including the value of consumption by the household and by animals) which has a gross worth (crop value) per household of $291.
27.6% of farmers have no cash income from the selling of crops.
66.1% of farmers earn less than $50 from the sale of crops; 81% of farmers earn less than $100 from the cash sale of crops.
Field losses:
Of all field losses reported, 14.6% are serious losses and 85.4% minor losses.
For 960 cases of cropping reported in the sample, crop field losses occur in 70% of cases.
The major field losses occur as a result of wind, mice/rats, and wild pigs, in that order. Of lesser significance are losses from plant diseases, insects and birds. Minor losses are caused by the same pests in the same priority order.
Wind damage is a particular problem in maize.
Pigs are a particular problem in maize, cassava and sweet potato.
Mice/rats are a particular problem in maize, cassava, peanuts and rice.
Birds affect mainly rice and bananas.
Storage losses:
Of the 960 cases of cropping reported, storage loses are reported in 32% of cases. Of these 96% were minor losses and 4% major losses.
Major losses occur mainly as a result of damage by mice/rats and worm/flees. Minor losses are from the same causes as well as from fungi.
Storage losses occur mainly in maize, and to a lesser extent in cassava, peanuts, and rice.
Maize is damaged by mice/rats and worms/flees; peanuts, cassava and rice are damaged mainly by mice/rats.
Section 5: Farm expenses
Most households use their own retained seed for cropping.
Few households use any purchased farm inputs.
Only 7.5% of households used any inorganic fertiliser, and almost a quarter of these got a ‘free’ supply.
Less than 1% of households used any purchased chemical pesticides.
5% of households received free inputs of some kind or another. 11% used purchased inputs of some kind.
Only 6.7% of farmers purchase seed.
The average expenditure on all farm inputs is only $11.55 per household across those households using purchased inputs. The average across all households is only $1.30 per year.
For those households that used fertiliser or pesticide, the total value of these inputs was less than $20 per household.
For those using purchased seed the average expenditure per household was less than $7.
No households in the Bobonaro District sample paid rent for land.
Only 2.3% of households practice sharecropping, and this was mainly for rice cropping.
Section 6: Livestock
Almost all households have chickens; 79% have pigs; 32% cattle; 12% buffalo; 18% goats; 20% horses and 2% ducks.
More households have buffalo in Rairobo than in other suco.
Fewer households have cattle and goats in Leber than in other suco.
Fewer households in Raeheu have horses than in other suco.
Average number of animals owned by households: -
Numbers: / Buffalo / Cattle / Chickens / Ducks / Goats / Horses / PigsAdult animals / 2.5 / 2.9 / 5.5 / 2.0 / 2.1 / 1.3 / 1.9
Young animals / 2.5 / 2.1 / 8.0 / 1.7 / 1.3 / 2.9
Note: some households may own only adult or only young animals
Average values for animals: -
Dollars: / Buffalo / Cattle / Chickens / Ducks / Goats / Horses / PigsAdult animals / 242 / 210 / 6.50 / 3.0 / 67 / 115 / 103
Young animals / 115 / 96 / 2.36 / 22 / 87 / 23
Number of households selling animals, numbers sold and average income from selling animals: -
Buffalo / Cattle / Chickens / Goats / Horses / Pigs% of households selling animals / 2.3% / 8.1% / 61% / 2.3% / 1.2% / 22.5%
Nos. of animals sold / 1.0 / 1.5 / 4.7 / 1.3 / 1.0 / 1.4
Average income / HH / $152 / $229 / $23 / $50 / $75 / $99
Notional income from selling animals across all households in the sample:
From selling Buffalo $3.50
From selling Cattle $18.50
From selling Chickens $14.00
From selling Goats $1.20
From selling Pigs $22.00
Total ‘notional’ income: $59.20
Few households vaccinate animals. Less than 10% vaccinate any type of animal.
Only 2.5% of households vaccinate chickens
Almost 10% of households vaccinate buffalo, cattle and horses. 7.3% vaccinate pigs.
There is no Section 7 (Fishing)
Section 8: Other income
21.3% of households plant trees for firewood or timber; most of these are in Rairobo.
For those that planted trees, most households planted less than 50 trees.
Hunting and catching wild animals:
6.3% of households caught or hunted wild animals; more did this in Leber than in other suco. Most of these households hunted or caught pigs.
For those households hunting or catching wild animals, the average cash income was $12.50 from pigs and $75 for deer, and for other small animals $1.00
The value of consumption income was pigs $28, deer $35, other small animals $15.
For those households that caught or hunted wild animals the average cash and consumption income from the activity is $48.27.
Averaged across all households in the sample (regardless of whether they hunted or caught wild animals) the average income is for pigs $1.92; deer $1.03; other small animals $0.10; or $3.05 per household across all animal types.
Other produce sales:
29.3% of households sell other produce; mainly eggs. The average income from selling eggs is $4.08 per household.
Other activities earned more money that selling eggs but a lot fewer households were engaged in the activity. For example, selling crafts earned $135 per household (2 households); meat sales $75 (2 households).
For those households earning income from other activities, the average income per household was $26.03. Across all 174 households sampled, the average is $8.50.
Off-farm income:
14.9% of households earned off-farm income. This was mainly from trade stores or paid employment.
For those with off-farm income, the average income is $195; across all households in the survey $29.
Section 9: Consumption expenditure:
Most households spend money each month on cereals purchases, oil, cooking ingredients and tobacco. The average expenditure on food items is $11.70 per household.
The largest single item within the food group is for cereals (including rice) at $6.35 per month. For most other items the average is less than $1 per month.
The monthly expenditure on other goods (toiletries, school fees, travel costs, electricity/power, clothing, household items, medical. etc.) is $11.70 per household per month.
The total for both groups combined is $17.90 per household per month; equivalent to $215 per household per year.
Section 10: Money loaned and borrowed
7.5% of households lend money to others. The average amount lent as $39. (Across all households, irrespective of whether lending, $2.92).
The main purpose of lending to other households is for celebrations and for house repairs.
21.3% of households borrow money from others. For these households, the borrowing is mainly from relatives (67%); friends (13.5%); CEP (10.8%); and other sources (8%).
The average amount borrowed is $49.73; the larger amounts are borrowed from the CEP. (Notional borrowing across all 174 households is $10.57).
Borrowing from CEP is mainly for land, non-farm business, or house repairs.