has been adapted from the grass mounding technology of a neighboring savannah group. It is being tried in permanent or long term plots planted to beans, or beans and cassava, in women's home gardens planted to beans, cassava, fruits, MIOMBO WOODLANDS PERMANENT FIELD vegetables, and specialty crops, and it is used in the
y d 9/latter part of the cycle on chitemene plots to prolong the
useful life of the plot for bean and/or cassava production (Huxley et al. 1985; Haug 1981). Second, women's home gardens are becoming increasingly important for food OMEGARDENS/ production and cash income and are being diversified to
CRL include fruit trees. Some women are experimenting for the
first time with tree planting in such gardens. Mounding, raised beds, and clean tilled plots are all being tried, with a tendency toward mounding in the larger gardens. Women heads of household rely heavily on cassava home PROCESSING 'gardens for food production to supplement what they can buy
MIOMBO WOODLANDS with wages. For women without male household labor for
9 cr chitemene clearing, the home garden, beer making, and
RL RC cassava processing are important alternatives to earn cash
to buy food. most garden experiments reflect a desire to intensify land use on small plots and to diversify CHITEMENE PLOT processing enterprises (Stollen 1983; Huxley et al. 1985).
d) yTwo women farmers' experiments were especially noteRCRL worthy. One woman conducted a trial with low level fertilizer application on a clean tilled plot with millet and 41' cassava, with a partial control (clean tilled, no fertilisi% o-r1 0zer). This trial combined the site preparation technique for monocropped maize with lower fertilizer levels and traditional chitemene crops. The result was increased millet A _"yield, with lower cost and less risk than maize. The woman (ft_ 7 who conducted the experiment wanted millet for home consumption and beer brewing. Another woman planted soybeans on clean-tilled plots for soya milk, prompted by a concern for nutrition and by free seed provided through her daughter's participation in an urban women's program in the
FIGURE 11.4 mining district (Huxley et al. 1985).
Both men and women indicated several important roles of
MISAMFLI, N.E. ZAMBIA woodland and fallowland products in the household diet and
economy (both commercial and subsistence). Woodland and fallow areas are major sources of wild leafy vegetables, This figure shows the Chitemene system in northeast Zambia, and exclusive sources of mushrooms and caterpillars, that
including new practices observed near Misamfu. Note that occuistlycon on te secies anl er pil at
wome cotrolthemillt cop one f svera intheoccur mostly on one tree species, Julbernardia paniculata women control the millet crop (one of several in the (S. Holden, pers. comm.). Caterpillars and wild leafy
intercrop rotation.) R, L, and C have the sane meanings vegetables are major sources of protein and both mushrooms
in Figure 11.1. and caterpillars are important sources of cash income for
Source: Rocheleau, D. (1987a). most households. All three products fall within women's
domain of responsibility as providers and may be processed or sold by them. Timber (men's responsibility), fuelwood