Course name: Farming Systems and Livelihood Analysis (AgEc 352)

Topic One: The Concepts of Agriculture and farming system

1.1. The Importance of Agriculture in Developing Economies

Today, some two billion people in developing world grind out a meagre and often inadequate
existence in agriculture pursuits. Over 3.3 billion people are living in rural areas in 2007, a
quarter of them are in extreme poverty. People living in the countryside makeup of more than
half of the population of such diverse Latin America and Asian nations such as Haiti,
Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Honduras, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the
Philippines, Thailand, and China. In SSA, the ratios are much higher, with rural dwellers
consisting 65% of total population.

Over two-third of the world’s poorest population is located in rural areas and primarily
engaged in subsistence agriculture. Their basic concern is for survival. Many hundreds of
millions of people have been bypassed by whatever economic progress their nations have
attained. It is estimated that 800 million people do not have enough food to meet their basic
nutritional needs. Most of these countries are low-income countries, which tend to have the
highest share of labour force in agriculture, sometimes as much as 80-90%, while developed
worlds are as low as 2 to 4%. For instance, at the turn of 19th century, 70% of labour force in
USA was in agriculture; in 2000, it was only 3%.

Moreover, in most developing countries the share of agriculture in GDP is lower, but can
represent as high as 50% of the value of outputs. This is mainly due to the low productivity of
agriculture in Least Developing Countries (LDCs). To cite an example, in the 1960s,
agricultural labour productivity of developed countries was 13 times more than that of LDCs.
By 2000, the gap had risen to 50 times (Todaro and Smith, 2009).

Likewise, the Ethiopian agricultural system has had a significant share to the national
economy but unable to free the nation from poverty and hunger, as a result the country is
suffering series of a grim food insecurity situation year after year and experiencing bad
macroeconomic trends. Agriculture contributes 45% to the GDP; generates 85% of foreign
currency earning; employs about 83% of labour force; supplies the main sources raw
materials; and provides a means of livelihoods for the majority of the population.
However, farming population is unable to live a life free from poverty, and agricultural
growth remains stagnant in the country. Evidences are depicting that arable land occupies

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about 10.01% of the total land area and cropped land is only 0.65%. The rate of population
growth rate is 3.2 % (in 2010) and major food gain production is only increasing by 1.7% per
annum. The peasant agriculture cultivates close to 97% of the total cropped land and
produces more than 90% of the total agricultural outputs. The peasant agriculture in Ethiopia
is the lowest productive and as traditional as the beginning of agriculture in early human
history. This must be changed to end poverty and hunger.

Traditionally, in economic development, agriculture has been assumed to play passive and
supportive role. Its primary purpose was to provide sufficient low-price food, manpower in
the expanding industrial economy which thought to be “leading sector”, according to Lewis
two-sector model, and supply cheap labour. However, there is tremendous paradigm shifts in
development thinking that agriculture is recognized as active and central role playing for
economic progress of LDCs. The contrast in shift of thinking about the role of agriculture is
summarized in the Table 1.1. below.

Table 1.1. The Difference between the Roles and Contributions of Agriculture

Contribution Roles
Thinking before 1960s Emerged in the late1960s and 1970s
Perceived agriculture as a passive Agriculture plays active and impactful works
servant
The contributions in this regards are: The roles include:
• Supply cheap food for urban • Provides market for non-farm
• Supply industrial raw materials products(effective demand)
• Generating foreign exchange • Sources of employment
• Supply labour for industry etc. • Livelihoods of most LDCs
Because it is dying sector, backward In order to realize the roles we must invest on
and traditional. agriculture.
Source: Authors’ own generalization (2013)

1.2. Characteristics of Agriculture in Developing Countries

Dear Learners: look at your surrounding farm; imagine the level and means of production
employed. The majority is characterized by traditional features in terms of its methods and
level of production. Traditional agriculture is farming in which technology used has been
developed by observation of nature by people who lack knowledge of and access to science
and industrial technologies. Traditional farming practices have been technologies neither
developed without access to knowledge of the basic sciences nor industrially produced
inputs. In general, traditional agriculture is the art of agriculture, which has been passed on
verbally and by demonstration from generation to generation, based upon much observation

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and experiences in local farming areas over the years. According to Theodore Schulz (1962),
there are five hypotheses about the traditional developing countries’ agriculture.

1. Farmer in traditional agriculture responds to economic incentives;

2. Agricultural development is not primarily a problem of the supply of capital. It is
rather a problem of determining the form this investment must take, forms that will
make it profitable to invest in agriculture;
3. There are comparatively few significant inefficiencies in the allocation of the factors
of production in traditional agriculture;
4. There is no much to be gained from imitating the best farmers in traditional
agriculture; and
5. The rate of return to capital is low in traditional agriculture. In other words, the price
(cost) of increasing the productive capacity of traditional capacity of traditional
agriculture is high.
Empirical evidences are also portraying that the average productivity (output over input) of
land, livestock, and labour is very low. Factors contributing to low productivity include
limited amount of land available per farmer, limits on other basic resources (e.g. water) to use
with hand and animal tools, and the low productivity of crop varieties and livestock.

Furthermore, there is uncertainty and variability in traditional agriculture. Some bodies of

literatures refer to such characters as complex, divers, and risky situation. With little control
over soil moisture, pests and other crop- growing variables in many agricultural areas of
developing countries, there is great uncertainty in traditional agriculture with uncertain
yields.

Despite these, agricultural uncertainty is a fundamental fact of life that plays a pivotal role in
the development process. Because, in an attempt to minimize these phenomena, framers use
various coping mechanisms including mixed cropping and intercropping and pastoralists
move with livestock following well locally developed mobility pattern seasonally. Of course,
variability of farm performance among farm households is observable in agricultural
communities of developing countries.

Among others, the reasons for the variability of the performances or efficiency of farmers
include;

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 a. Physical and mental handicaps/capability and wellbeing,
b. Varying access to local agricultural resources (resource poor and rich farmers/areas),
c. Different values held about agricultural work (norms, taboos, customs and religion),
and
d. Competing demands on farmers’ resources (land and water)

1.3. Agriculture and Economic Growth

Dear Learners: agriculture comprises significant portions of economy. However, it is not

invested in and perceived as servant sector. Sadly, it is still underdeveloped and traditional.
Thus, growth and development need the realization of the potential of agriculture. Linkages
between agriculture and economic growth are briefly put below.

Agricultural Growth Is Necessary for Economic Growth: nearly every high-income

country has a highly productive agricultural sector, and agricultural growth was in every case
a critical component of the process of economic growth. Among other things, remain
constant; economic growth involves the production of more goods and services, and a much
wider range of goods and services, than before. Productivity growth in agriculture permits
workers to move out of agriculture and into the production of other goods and services
without having too much of an impact on domestic agricultural production. A smaller number
of farmers can produce as much food or more than before.

Agriculture's Share of the Economy Declines with Economic Growth: In general, as per
capita income increases, the percentages share of agriculture from GDP and labour force
declines. GDP is a widely used measure of national income. If you look across countries at a
given point in time or at a single country over time, you tend to see that the percentage share
of agriculture from GDP tends to decline faster than the percentage share of agriculture from
labour force.

Dear learners, what makes up the percentage share of agriculture to decline from economy as
per capita increases? Why agriculture share of GDP fall faster than that of its share from
labour force? Discuss with your friends once and look at Figure 1.1. that illustrates the
relationship between per capita income and agriculture's percentage of the labour force and
GDP.

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Figure 1.1. The Relationship between Growth in Per Capita Income and Agriculture

Source: Developed based findings in Xinshen D., et al (2007)

The diagram shows, agriculture tends to decline more quickly as a percentage of GDP than as
a percentage of the labour force stay in agriculture. This is because rapid growth in industrial
and service sectors production causes agriculture's share of GDP to decline early in the
growth process.

1.4. Brief Historical Overview of Agricultural Research

In the beginning of 20th century, Charles Darwin’ s theory of evolution, pure-line theory of
Wilhelm Johannsen, and the rediscovering of Gregor Meldel’s law of hereditary contributed
to the rise of plant breeding, while Louis Pasteur’s germ theory of disease and the
development of vaccines opened lines of research in the veterinary science. The next epoch in
agricultural technology will also have fundamental biological sciences at its foundation.

The dominant ways to increase agriculture’s output have remained to be; expanding the land
area for cultivation, and improving the quality of inputs to be used. If agricultural growth is
taken to mean increases in the farming incomes of rural families, then a third way can be
added, i.e. shifting the product composition to higher-value products. There are no other
ways. Increasing agricultural productivity, after all, is the urgent because majority of the
developing world’s poor are found in rural areas, and the sector’s average productivity is
actually declining in many low-income countries.

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Agricultural research and development models have mostly been created in industrialized
nations and then have been introduced into developing nations. This shows that developed
countries introduce research results and models after they succeeded in their context.
Furthermore, the scientific methods of experimentation and discovery have not changed since
the 19th century. The earlier research and extension work could be seen as an extension of
ToT (Transfer of Technology), where outside professionals obtained information from
farmers, analysed it and decided what would be good for the farmers, and what experiments
should be designed and executed. The farmers were passive users of new technologies.
Historically, non-adoption of recommendations was attributed to farmers’ ignorance, and
then to farm level constraints, with the solution in easing the constraints through better linear
extension models (Chambers, 1993).

However, evidence shows that farmers are far more knowledgeable and better informed than
agricultural professionals used to suppose; and farming conditions are, and will remain,
different from those prevailing at research stations. Since the introduction of technology
transfer model and it was failed, the research and development arena in the developing world
has seen a number of paradigm shifts to overcome drawbacks of ToT or diffusion model. For
example according to Belay (2003), an Extension model in Ethiopia has passed through at
least five stages: the land grant extension system provided by the Imperial Ethiopian College
of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts (IECMA), the Comprehensive Package Programs
(CPPS), the Minimum Package Projects (MPPs), the Peasant Agricultural Development
Program (PADEP), and the Participatory Demonstration and Training Extension System
(PADETES). The FTC encourages the farmers to learn by themselves, to do research and find
relevant technologies for themselves.

1.5. Paradigm shift in Agricultural Research and Development

Paradigm is a theoretical or philosophical framework of scientific school or disciplines within

which theories, law, generalization, and experiments performed in support of them. We say
shift, when the theory or model or approach etc. we were using has limitation and hence, we
stopped using them and develop or modify that theory or model or approach etc.

Agricultural Research and Technology Development is undergoing a paradigm shift, in which

the environment under which agricultural research and extension systems are operating is
affecting their organizational structure, management styles and field operations. A shift was

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 needed from a single commodity, mono-disciplinary base to a farming system and a
multidisciplinary-based approach together with a change from a top-down extension model to
a participatory approach to technology assessment and adoption. The key features of the
paradigm shift are summarized in Table 2.1. below.

Table 1.2. Key Features of the Paradigm Shift in Agricultural Research and Development
Characteristics Conventional paradigm (old Current paradigm (newly emerging view)
view)
Driving motive Efficiency: maximize Productivity, food and nutritional security, poverty
productivity and profit/return alleviation, ecological sustainability, and equity in
to limited resources; resource
competitiveness
Causes of • Lack of knowledge of Political-economic roots of problems, and neglect
problems farmers/Farmers are irrational of ecology
Key features Crop/commodity, specific Agro-ecosystems, polycultures, multiple and high
monoculture, uniformity, value crops, holistic view of productivity and
homogeneity, and resource management
reductionism
Institutional • Top-down (linear) Interactive systemic model, collaborations and
relations and technology development and networks, horizontal relations (farmer to farmer);
actors transfer model agricultural innovation systems, pluralism
• Research to extension (or (research, extension, NGOs, education, civil
private sector) to farmers societies, CBOs, private sectors etc.)

Main Private sector, formal Public interests, communities and farmers

beneficiaries institutions (especially the poor), women and children,
and locus of vulnerable groups
control of
technology
Focus of • Single technologies (seeds, Agro ecological principles, institutional
Innovation agro chemical, bio- innovations, empowerment and capacity
technology) strengthening, relationship among partners and
• Production technologies actors
ITK-indigenous technical knowledge
Main types of Uni-disciplinary, reductionist, Multidisciplinary, farmers are researchers and
research scientists or private sector innovators, on-farm, participatory, in communities
generate knowledge, mainly
done in research stations
Common view Passive audience/partners, • Active, rational, key partners in the innovation
of farmers irrational seen as conservative process
and ignorant • Farmers are active in adopting new research
findings
Skills required Specialization in technology, Biological systems management, social and
biological/agronomic institutional relations, people/partnering, skills,
sciences, Business, finances, facilitating skills.
bio technology
Policy arena Political agencies form rules, • Public (community) actively involved in setting

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 close connection with private agenda and decisions
sectors • Link to environmental, social, and food interests
Source: Adapted from Anandajayasekeram et al. (2008)

1.6. Rationale for Shift in Paradigm and Strategies

In most developing countries, the public sector agricultural research and development system
has been characterized by only building up research personnel, declining levels of operating
resources per researchers and growing reliance on donor funds. Today, most National
Agricultural Research Institutes (NARIs i.e. in Ethiopia- now called EARI by replacing the
word ‘National’ by Ethiopia) are constrained by lack of finance to hire new staff or retain
existing staff due to inadequate support and low payment. There are also prevalent budgetary
constraints that focus on short-term activities, geographical areas and limited number of
commodities; and lack of strong national or rural development policies in favour of resource-
poor smallholders and sustainability.

Studies show that many organizations, especially publicly funded agencies dealing with
agricultural research and development in developing countries are facing a crisis of
confidence among key stakeholders due to the following constraints;

1. Lack of strategic planning that indicates future directions:- refers to the lack of long-
term strategic vision of research and development in the country to develop it into
adaptive research
2. Poor participation and cooperation of end-users in research activities:- the main
problem remains to be less participation of end users in overall research process
3. Inadequate monitoring and evaluation systems:- there are no in-built monitoring and
evaluation system.
4. Inward looking attitude:- no cohesion among staffs and individualism is high.
5. Top-heavy, bureaucratic procedures:- With the devolution of power to the regions,
zones, and Woredas in Ethiopia, for instance, the research and extension service has
also seen some degree of decentralization, although top–down approach is still
prevalent.
6. Insufficient resources for effective implementation of priority research:- we prioritize
research based on budget we have, not based on severity of problem or needs of
community.

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 7. Lack of effective external linkages:- communication and collaboration is very limited
even, for instance, among regional states in Ethiopia.
8. Lack of evaluation and performance culture- there is lack of particularly impact
assessment at community level after one to five years. This is nowhere else truer than
in countries like ours
1.7. Concept of system
The term "System" is derived from the Greek word systema. It means an organized
relationship among functioning units or components. We can define a System as a
combination of resources or functional units working together to accomplish a given task.
The term "working together" in system definition is very important as all the components are
interrelated and interdependent and it cannot exist independently. As the definition says,
these components interact with each other to accomplish a given task, which is actually the
objective of the system. The following figure gives us all the basic components of a system as
it is understood in systems theory.

Figure 1.2. Basic Components of System in accordance with System’s Theory

Source: Developed based on Checkland (2000)

From the above figure you can see five terms such as input, output, throughput, boundary and
environment. Our system, as living organisms for example, is needs inputs like oxygen,
water, food etc from environment and provides outputs like carbon dioxide, urine, excrete
wastes etc to survive. When we change inputs to outputs there is an intermediate process or
physiological process which is called throughput. Our boundary is our skin that separates us

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from environment. This is where the concept of system was first emerged in biology. The
concept of working together shows that our body is made up from different systems such as
circulatory, expiratory, digestion etc systems. If one of our systems is affected, it will affect
our overall performance that is interdependency. Therefore, the whole (e.g. our body) cannot
be subdivided into independent subsystems.

Let us take another example, farm as a system, please, be cautious that it is not perfect, but it
represents our mental picture about the farm components.

Figure 1.3. A Sample Farm System

Source: Authors’ own conceptualization (2013)

A system, according to the above diagram, is a set of components or subsystems such as

biological elements, social elements, physical elements and household elements that are
connected together to form a whole i.e. farming system. The elements function together in
support of a whole or farming system.
By the way, knowing the common terms in system thinking paradigm would contribute a lot
to better understand and use the concept. The following are the major ones;

1.8. Common Terms used in System Thinking

 Interdependence - independent elements can never constitute a system
 Holism - emergent properties not possible to detect by subsystem analysis

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 Goal seeking - systemic interaction must result in some goal or final state
 Inputs and Outputs - in a closed system, inputs are determined once and constant; in an
open system additional inputs are admitted from the environment
 Transformation- of inputs into outputs - this is the process by which the goals are
obtained
 Entropy - the amount of disorder or randomness present in any system
 Regulation - a method of feedback is necessary for the system to operate predictably
 Hierarchy - complex wholes (super systems) are made up of smaller subsystems
 Differentiation - specialized units perform specialized functions like our brain, CPU in
computer, household in farming system
 Equifinality - alternative ways of attaining the same objectives (convergence) from
different inputs, output is the same.
 Multifinality - attaining alternative objectives from the same inputs (divergence)
Let’s just take an example for Equifinality and Multifinality in agricultural systems.
Figure 1.4. Equifinality in for Income and Multifinality of Livestock Product

Source: Authors own conceptualizations (2013)

1.9. System’s Classification

There is no universally accepted classification. For simplicity of understanding, system can

be classified into three broad families; vis-à-vis natural, social, and artificial systems. Have a
look at them.

1. Natural systems – are those systems that exist in nature. They consist of all the materials
(both physical and biological) and interrelated processes occurring to these materials. They
exist independent of humankind. Our role in relation to natural systems is to try to understand

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them and, as need be, make use of them. We also increasingly attempt to duplicate them, in
part or whole; but at this point they become, by definition, man-made or artificial systems.

2. Social systems are more difficult to define. Essentially, they consist of the entities forming
animate populations, the institutions or social mechanisms created by such entities, and the
interrelationships among or between individuals, groups, and communities, expressed directly
or through the medium of institutions. Social systems involve relationships between animate
populations (individuals, groups, communities), not between things. The concern here is with
human social systems as they relate to or impinge upon farming, and the term social system is
used broadly to include institutions i.e. the rule of the game and relationships.

There is a certain degree of ambiguity in defining social systems. As an example, the law of
property is in its essence a social system. It is viewed as consisting of concepts, principles
and rules; it is a pure social system independent of natural systems. However, it also
presupposes the existence of property, including natural physical things such as land. But if
there is no land or issue of land is changed, the law must be disappeared or changed in line
with change in land issue. Here, social system is unclear because it is not observable like
natural system. Therefore, social system is deliberate mental construct that people create
through debate, negotiation and consensus to solve problems.

3. Artificial systems do not exist in nature. They are of human creation. Artificial systems
include agricultural systems. They are constructed from either or both of two kinds of
elements i.e. from natural and social systems. In this regard, dairy cooperative (cooperative is
social and dairy is agriculture or natural) can be taken as the other example for artificial
system.

1.10. Evolution of system thinking in agriculture

In the preceding sub unit, we hope that you understood the two categories of systems thinking
and their properties with examples. In this unit, we will thoroughly look at how each category
of system thinking has been applied to bring agricultural development and/or to solve
agricultural problems. Let us discuss one by one!

1. Hard system thinking in agricultural development

In preceding unit, we have said that hard system or systematic thinkers study observable
things or “matters”. The concept was coined from positivist philosophies that first defined

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what the science is and what is not. For positivist philosophers to be a scientific means
studying a real world out there; whose characteristics can be observed, measured and
generalized in a way that come close to truth. It is believed that anybody can observe reality
almost equally if he/she follows scientific procedure.

This positivist scientific method is called Hard System Methodology (HSM). Here, the
observer and the object are separate. E.g. if an agronomist (researcher or observer) studies
maize (researched), the subjective interest of observer cannot affect outcome of the research
result due to scientific procedure s/he follows (i.e. research method). In this case scientific
knowledge is objective and universal (it’s true everywhere).

To easily understanding the concept, (hard) sciences such as biology, chemistry, and physics,
which we learnt in high school, exactly follows positivist philosophy. The hard scientists
measure and manipulate real objects by using mathematical models and probability theory.
You may remember the laboratory of these subjects in high school, which is small world that
we observe simplified realities (e.g. cell, molecule, elements, reactions etc.) by following the
stated scientific procedures. You may remember also that we measured and quantified that
reality by using mathematical formulas and models. Because of this systematic simplification
of complex things into simple explanation, positivists are sometimes called reductionist
philosophers. This means positivists perceive that by systematically taking or observing
smallest part of the system (any matter) we can understand the whole system and engineer it.
It is the fact that positivism is the dominant philosophy of science that contributed for
advancement of technologies and innovations in the globe. E.g. advancement of ICT, modern
medicine, transportation etc. is almost due to positivist directed scientific inquiry. However,
this does not mean that positivists have solution for every problem we face today.

For positivist scientists, agriculture is “real matter” that needs to be engineered by applying
HSM. Especially, since famous economist, Thomas Malthus, speculated that planet earth
cannot feed rapidly growing human population beyond 20th century, finding mechanism of
increasing agricultural productivity per unit area was the key impetus for agricultural
scientists. Positivist economists also call for agricultural product marketability to generate
incomes. Thus, the publicly funded scientific Agricultural Research and Development (ARD)
in the western world (USA and Europe) had discovered new agricultural technologies such as
new crop varieties of maize, wheat, rice, fertilizer, in 1940s and 50s and increased
agricultural productivity.

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The scientists use scientific procedural experimentation in the lab and research station. E.g.
for maize scientists, maize is the system and plot of land is environment. The scientists
simply study, if what amount of inputs (e.g. amount fertilizer) is used, the system (maize
plant) give maximum output (e.g. quintal per hectare). For e.g. see the following figure as
example of reductionist system view about a cow. In this example, animal scientists try to
discovery how to achieve maximum outputs (dependent variables-y-axis) from the cow by
using different inputs (independent variable-x-axis) and agricultural economists analyze costs
(of inputs)- benefit (of outputs) and predict profits. For problems like diseases, pests and
weeds; the scientists had discovered many agro-chemicals such pesticides and herbicides.
Further, due to advancement of genetic engineering, crops and animals scientists could easy
identify crops and animals that efficiently convert inputs into outputs, and tolerant to drought,
disease, and pest.

inputs
outputs
e.g. meat, a e.g. feed,
milk, draught water, pen
etc.
.

Figure 1: example of reductionist system view: a cow is clearly observable system that has
fixed boundary and interdependent parts with well-defined functions, which transform inputs
to outputs

By support of extension services improved crop and animal technologies had been
spontaneously adopted by farming communities of western world and agricultural production
and productivity highly increased. As result, western farmers could produce ample foods for
both their consumption and market supply. That achievement had even contributed for
transition of western world from agrarian society to industrial society.

It was against this background that positivist scientists, policy makers and politicians in
western and developing nations (Africa, Asia, and Latin America) were convinced to transfer
the western born agricultural technologies to hungry developing nations in the 1950s. To do
so, initiative of transferring the technology known as Green Revolution (GR) was launched
throughout developing nations through support of western nations in the same decade. It is
also called Transfer of Technology (ToT) model. The ToT model operates based on the

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principle that scientists (especially, crop scientists) develop a new technology on research
station and then extension workers, in turn, would transfer it to farmers. It is linear model that
straightly link researcher-extension-farmers. It is top-down approach that considers farmers
as passive recipients of what scientists recommend.

For example, the then Haile Selassie-I college of Agriculture was established in 1954 through
US government “land grant system” to promote ToT model in Ethiopia. The World Bank
had also implemented ToT model of Training and Visit (T & V) program as global support in
the whole Africa in 1970s.

The fact that ToT program had increased production and productivity of targeted crops (such
as maize, wheat, rice) in developing nations, especially in Latin America and Asia. However,
the GR/ToT program did not work in context of many small farmers of Africa and in some
parts of Asia and Latin America. The empirical studies even shows that where GR worked,
environmental degradation and social inequality were exacerbated and the poor small
farmers, who are majority and live in the marginal and unfavorable ecosystem, were less
targeted by GR programs. The extension services biased towards large or model farmers.

The failure of ToT model in developing Nations was the reason for origin of soft system
thinking in agriculture, the first one is known as Farming system Research (FSR) in 1970s
and 80s. We will discuss FSR approach in detail in chapter 3.

However, this does not mean that policy of ToT that considers only agricultural productivity
at expense of socio-economic equity and environmental sustainability is replaced by better
model. Since agricultural ToT policy has fast positive impacts on national economic growth,
it is still dominant agricultural policy in African countries. This is mainly because; ToT
policy is politically attractive since increasing agricultural productivity displayed as
mechanism of reducing hunger and poverty and ensuring economic growth of a nation.

Despite the fact, the ToT, which considers only agricultural productivity, has been facing a
lot of pressures from the world communities in developing and developed nations. To
mention some challenges brought by ToT policy:

 Loss of crops biodiversity due to mono-cropping recommended by scientists. Local

varieties of different crops that adapted the local context for thousand years are lost
and farmers are buying seeds from supermarkets every planting season.

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  Risks of agro-chemicals such as fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides on human and
environmental health; empirical studies indicate these chemicals already killed
numerous useful living things (small animals and plants), creating water pollution,
and foods produced by agro-chemicals are no as healthy as natural one.

 The current Land grabbing in Ethiopia and in other Africa countries is ToT model to
expand input intensive agriculture for short term GDP growth without carefully
considering social and environmental impacts of the intervention.

Nonetheless, especially highly educated people are becoming skeptical about positivist
scientists recommendation for agriculture. Currently traditional agricultural practices like
home garden and small scale farming, which are free from agrochemicals, are seen as best
option for many scholars. It is this steady rise of these uncertainties and challenges
throughout the world that have become a reason for evolutions of alternative philosophy
known as constructivism that has been coined soft system Methodology (SSM) in
agriculture and in related fields.
2. Soft System Thinking in Agriculture
In preceding sub unit one, we have said that soft system thinking is human activity system
that focuses on human “mind” as a reality. This thinking was originated from constructivist
philosophies that perceive reality as socially constructed in the mind of an observer, in
contrast to positivist. According to constructivist, human beings generate knowledge and
meaning (reality) from an interaction between their experiences and their ideas, which is
context specific based on location and time. Here, there is no objectivity and universality of
reality. Reality is relative, and context specific and no standardized measurement.

For example, you may assume establishment of Farmers Agricultural inputs cooperative
(FAIC) in Awi zone Banja district as a Soft system Methodology (SSM). The FAIC exists;
if and only if, people believe that its existence is useful, agree on its goals, its boundaries,
membership criteria, etc. so that people should agree on current situation of problem
definition and create the future vision as mental “ideal” model. The main assumption is that
system goals or expected outcome are not given like hard system, but they are contestable
and negotiated by people. It is because; people have diverse interests and views about
importance of cooperative. This is to claim that simplistic causal-effect (x-axis and y-axis
model of maths) relationships in HSM are seemed pretending and denying complexity of

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realities of the system. It needs gathering of multiple views of people and renegotiation with
them to redefine why cooperative is needed and how it helps them for near future.

When we view agriculture through the lens of constructivist philosophies, agriculture is

different thing for different people. This is to say for positivist agriculture is mostly crops
and animals, needs plant and animal scientists to increase productivity. This is reductionist
view i.e. it reduced agriculture to only animals and plants, while wider social, economic,
political, and environmental factors are already parts and parcels of agricultural system.

E.g. for environmental sciences and geographers agriculture is about managing natural
landscape; for social scientists (sociology and anthropology) agriculture is about cultural
heritage; for medical scientists’ agriculture is food and medicines etc.

For ordinary citizens such as farmers and pastoralists, agriculture is much more complex
thing. E.g. for pastoralists and farmers agriculture not only about producing food and
generating income, but also about identity, cultural pride, risk reduction, about territorial
claim etc. These farmers and pastoralists perceive agriculture from different angles (social,
economic, environmental, and political) and act accordingly in their day-to-day lives.
Reductionist scientists perceive agriculture as food and if more, as income generation.
Therefore, recommendations of reductionist scientists hardly compatible with context
(angles) of pastoralists and farmers and hence, many farmers and pastoralists fail to adopt
their recommendation. That is how countless development interventions had failed in a very
disappointing ways for the last a half century.

Topic Two: Farming system, Determinants and Approaches

2.1. Basic concepts of farming system

Farm: Farm is an area of land and its buildings which is used for growing crops and rearing
animals. It is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of
producing food and other crops. It is the basic facility in food production.
System: A system is a set of inter-related, interacting and interdependent elements acting
together for a common purpose and capable of reacting as a whole to external stimuli. It is
unaffected by its own output and it has external boundaries based on all significant feed
backs. A farm is a system in that it has inputs, processes, outputs and feedback.
Inputs are the factors that a farm needs to work.it can be divided into two groups.
Physical inputs are naturally occurring things such as water, raw materials and land.

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Human or cultural inputs are like labor and skills.
Processes are the actions within the farm that allow the inputs to turn into outputs. Processes
could include things such as harvesting, plowing and spraying.
Outputs can be negative or positive. Negative outputs include waste products and soil
erosion. The positive outputs are the finished products such as wheat, seeds, meat and egg,
and money gained from the sale of those products.
Feedback is what is put back into the system. The main two example of this are money, from
the sale of the outputs, and knowledge, gained from the whole manufacturing process. This
knowledge could then be used to make the production better or improve the efficiency of the
processes.
Farming is a process of harnessing solar energy in the form of economic plant and animal
products.

2.2. Farming system components

Components of farming systems are the enterprises that require due attention in the research
& development processes, and they directly or indirectly influence household’s management,
preferences, and decision makings. The potential enterprises which are important in farming
system in the way of making a significant impact of farm by generating adequate income and
employment and providing livelihood security are as follows:
 Crop Production: Crop production is an important farming practice in countries like
ours. Cropping systems based on climate, soil, size of plots, food habits, market
incentives, technological and institutional inputs available, and water availability have to

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 be evolved for realizing the potential production levels through efficient use of available
socio-economic and physical resources.

 Dairy Farming Systems: Dairy farming is an important source of income to farmers.

Besides, dairy farming is an important source of milk for home consumption, farmyard
manure, and fuel products. The later has attracted attention recently as biogas
developments are underway.

 Goat and Sheep Rearing Systems: Sheep and goat rearing systems are very common in
Ethiopia. Except in some cases, sheep is mostly reared in the highlands and mid altitudes,
while goats are mostly seen in lowland areas of the country. is different from that adopted
in other countries. In general, smaller units are mostly maintained

 Poultry Production Systems: Poultry is one of the fastest growing food industries in the
world. Poultry meat accounts for about 27% of the total meat consumed worldwide and
its consumption is growing at an average of 5% annually. Poultry industry in Ethiopia is
relatively a new agricultural industry. Till very recently, it was considered a back yard
profession in Ethiopia. Now, there are farms and farmers who generate income
dominantly from poultry production.

 Apiculture: Apiculture is the science and culture of honeybees and their management.
Apiculture, in Ethiopia, is mostly a subsidiary occupation and it is an additional source of
income for farm families.

 Agro-forestry Farming Systems: Is a collective name for land use systems and
technologies, in which woody perennials (trees, shrubs, palms, bamboos etc) are
deliberately combined on the same land-management unit as agricultural crops and
animals.

2.3. Factors determining farming systems

 Natural resource and climate

 Science and technology
 Trade liberalization and market development
 Policies, institutions and public goods
 Information and human capital
 Indigenous technological knowledge

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  Soil and climate feature of the selected area
 Availability of the resources, land, labor and capital
 Present level of utilization of resources.
 Economics of proposed integrated farming system
 Managerial skill of farmer

2.4. Major categories of farming system

There are some ways to classify the farming system of agriculture. We can classify this type
farming on the basis of output, input, process, farm size, water supply and location.

Classification of farming based on output

1. Commercial farming - this is farming for a profit. It usually involves farming on a
large scale, using few workers but lots of machinery and technology. The produce is
sold at market. Commercial farms usually produce one crop, so they are a
monoculture. The crops are often called cash crops, eg coffee or flowers. The majority
of produce is sold to the market.
2. Subsistence farming: in this farming, produce is consumed by the farmer; any
surplus is usually sold to buy other goods. - producing crops and rearing animals just
for use by the farmer. Little is left over to sell. It is often small scale and generally
involves a mixture of crops and animals. Many subsistence farmers aim to be self-
sufficient. The farm has little technology or machinery but may be labour intensive,
involving lots of manpower.

Features of subsistence farming

 The whole family works on the farm

 Most of the work is done manually
 The farms are small
 Traditional methods of farming are followed
 Yield are not very high
 Most of the yield is consumed by the family with very little surplus for family

Classification of farming based on input:

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 1. Intensive farming refers to higher level of input producing a high yield per hectare. It is
farming with high level of inputs (capital and labour) and high yield. It is usually found in
regions of dense population and high land values.
2. Extensive farming refers to by using low level of input producing a low yield per hectare. It
is farming with low inputs of capital and labour, generally with low yield per hectare. It is
associated with regions of cheap available land where high revenues are unimportant.
Classification of farming based on location:

1. Sedentary farming is when a farm is based in the same location all the time.
2. Nomadic farming is farming practice of raising livestock where the farmer has no home base
but rather moves around with the herd to different grazing areas as suits the farmer. This practice
is found most often in underdeveloped countries where land ownership is not well defined, or is
defined on a cultural rather than personal level.

Classification of farming by processes:

1. Arable farming refers to growing and harvesting of crops, eg wheat and barley
Farmers have to select the type of farming which best suits the local physical environment.
They must also consider which types of produce will make the most money because there is
no point producing things they cannot sell. Although farms can be grouped into three broad
categories, the things they grow or produce may change over time.
It is important for arable farmers to rotate their crops in order to maintain soil fertility.
Arable crops need:
• Flat or gently sloping land
• Deep, fertile soils
• Not too dry and not too wet
• Warm climate
• Land suitable for machinery
• Fairly sheltered land

2. Pastoral farming is specialized in rearing of animals, eg cows and sheep

Why are some areas more suited to pastoral farming rather than arable farming?

 Steep slopes - too dangerous for machinery but suitable for sheep.
 Poor soils - only providing enough nutrition for rough grasses and heather.

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 Cold and wet climate - makes growing crops difficult.
 Stronger winds - would flatten some crops
3. Mixed farming is both arable and pastoral. Some farms are both arable and pastoral. This
reduces the risk because if prices fall for one crop or there are unfavourable weather
conditions, there may be another product that can provide food and make money. Animals
can also provide manure for the fields and help to maintain soil fertility.
Classification of Farming System-According to Water Supply
According to the Water Supply:
1. Rain Fed Farming: Agriculture mainly depends on the rainfall in most part of the
country. 80% of the total cultivated arable land is rain fed. Rain fed farming is very risky
system of farming where the success of the crop depends on the cycle of the rainy season.
Timely rainfall is the pre-requisite of this farming. The uneven rainfall is quite detrimental to
crop production.

2. Irrigated Farming:

The crop can be grown throughout the year; moisture is not a limited factor. The round the
year cropping pattern becomes possible. Intensive cropping is possible. Production can be
increased by proper utilization of productive resources. Crop rotation can be executed
properly due to adequate irrigation facility. Manuring is safely done in irrigated crop. The
field experiment is possible, because of timely irrigation facility.

Classification of Farming Systems- According to size of farm

1. Collective Farming:

It includes the direct collection of plant products from non-arable lands. It may include either
regular or irregular harvesting of uncultivated plants; honeying and fishing usually go hand in
hand with collection. Actual cultivation is not needed. The natural products like honey, gum,
flower etc are collected. Such plant product may be collected from forestry area.

2. Cultivation Farming:

In this system, farming community cultivates the land for growing crops for obtaining
maximum production per unit area.

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i) Small Scale Farming: In this type, the farming is done on small size of holding and other
factors of production are small in quantity and scale of production is also small.

ii) Large scale farming: when farming is done on large size holding with large amount of
capital, large labor force, large organization and large risk are called large- scale farming.

2.5. Gender and HIV/AIDS in farming systems

2.5.1. Gender role in farming system

Gender is an integral and inseparable part of rural livelihoods. Men and women have
different assets, access to resources, and opportunities. Women rarely own land, may have
lower education due to discriminatory access as children, and their access to productive
resources as well as decision-making tend to occur through the mediation of men. Women
typically confront a narrower range of labour markets than men, and lower wage rates. In
general, therefore, diversification is more of an option for rural men than for women. In this
sense, diversification can improve household livelihood security while at the same time
trapping women in customary roles.

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