also maintained formal linkages with the extension branch and planning census shows that 24 percent of households in Mkushi District are female
divisions within MAWD. CIMMYT had influenced the form and structure headed. This is because their husbands have migrated to urban areas for
of FSR/E in Zambia from conception through regional implementation, wage income. Others are widowed, divorced, or never married but have
and it continued to provide training assistance. children. There is little interaction between male heads of households and
female heads of households because of social disapproval of meetings beCentral Province tween married men and unmarried women.
The contribution of women to the economy comes through their
The location of tile Central Province in relation to the urban markets in work as small-scale farmers, as managers of their households, and as nonLusaka and the Copperbelt has given it a comparative advantage for corn- farm workers. Men do most of the heavy work of field preparation and
mercial agricultural production, and, in the last decade, commercialization in share responsibilities such as planting, hoeing, weeding, and harvesting. the small farm sector has accelerated. As a result, the Central Province ranks Female heads of household undertake the heavy work, hire labor, or get amopg the most agriculturally productive regions of the country in terms of help from male relatives or neighbors. The work load of women without the total volume of maize produced and marketed. Since the early seventies, husbands or with husbands or relatives away from home has increased a few farmers have adopted new crops, particularly cotton, sunflowers, and drastically, while their ability to feed their families adequately has been soybeans. The latter two crops have been encouraged by government exten- affected by the shortage of male labor. Poor women put in longer hours
sion efforts to provide new resources for cooking oil. In recent years, the than their wealthier counterparts since they cannot afford to hire labor. In National Oil Extraction Board has not been able to buy enough groundnuts household management, women undertake food processing and preparabecause of their popularity as a snack food. Research, input credit, extension tion, cooking, housekeeping, and child care, as well as collect fuel, water, and marketing services for cotton and soybeans are provided by the Lint and feed for domestic animals. This work time is shared with children.
Company of Zambia (L.INTCO). Although maize remained the dominant Children start going to school at seven years. School-going children
starch staple and cash crop in Zambia, the Central Province also had the play an important role in farming households. Upon returning from school,
largest acreage of sunflowers, beans, groundnuts, sorghum, and millet. usually about 1 P.M., children change from their school uniforms and, after a
The province has a low rural population density of about three persons snack, join their parents with ongoing activities. Girls will usually go to tile pcr square kilometer, plateau characteristics with a consistent altitude of one wells for water and clean the house and yards. Occasionally they will feed thousand meters above sea level, and a rainfall period from November to chickens and other domestic animals. They may grind mealie meal while
April, which has a long-term avernige of eight hundred to one thousand mil- cooking relish for dinner. During the agricultural season, after completing meters. Most ot the arc., ilmdtl cultivationn has a uniform topography with the household work, girls will join their parents in the field. During the dry sandy (Sandveldt) soils, which are highly acidic, deeply weathered, and of season they will visit friends. After their snack, boys will normally join their low fertility. The exceptions are small pockets of heavier textured soils and parents in the field or take over tending cattle from their fathers. Older boys low-lying drainage areas (dambos). Dambo areas generally are not cultivated also will have responsibility for helping their fathers maintain the fence in the wet season because of their high water table. They are used for dry around the kraals and for helping to construct family houses. and wet season grazing or are fenced for diy season vegetable gardens. Women and men are also engaged in nonfarm activities. Women are
In 1976 there were sixty-six extension camps or extension locations in active in small-scale trade of food commodities and other household Central Province ranging from farmer training centers to school demonstra- products. Over 90 percent of sellers in local markets are women. Men are tion centers. There were sixty-eight extension staff each covering an area more active in cash-crop production and sales, while women are involved of approximately 263 square miles and over one thousand households. in food crop markets. Markets are held frequently in larger villages, particularly after the harvest, and serve as intervillage exchanges. IJsually these
Mkushi District small businesses are self-financing.
In addition to their different labor roles, women and men have differIn the Mkushi District in Central Province, the predominant ethnic groups ent access to assets and income and different financial responsibilities. Each are the Lenge, the Swaka, and the Lamba. In recent years, a small number sex earns and controls income from different crops or activities. Women are
of migrants have moved in and are cultivating land allocated to them by frequently responsible for their own and their children's food and clothing.
village headmen. Most of the family households are headed by men, but Men's earnings frequently go toward the purchase of capital items, inputs
an increasing number of women are now heads of households; the 1969 and so on, and family expenses such as school fees for tile children.