Socio-Economic Determinant of Seasonal Cropland Fallowing Decisions: Smallholders in South-western Uganda

The cropland fallowing decisions of farmers in the mountainous area of south-western Uganda is studied using regression methods to determine the relationship between farm and household factor and the degree of following. Factors positively associated with fallowing are the size of the field on which the homestead is located, farm acres per family member, per cent of cultivated land that is in current intercrop and the per cent of land that is located on hillsides. The only variable found to be negatively associated with fallowing was the days per week that the wife worked off-farm. Household labor availability and the distance that fields are from the homestead were not associated with the fallowing decision. sults point to a clear short-run policy solution to help farmers maintain soil fertility and reduce soil loss. As land population densities increased, the farms turned to greater intensity of land use through intercropping rather than significantly reducing the percentage of land that is in fallow. This suggests that even as the demand for food, and presumably income, increase, the farms studied continue to rely on fallowing as a means to stabilize the soil and maintain its fertility. Developing intercropping technologies that farmers can apply will allow for a continued use of current land fallowing practices. Alternatives to land fallowing include the use of mineral fertilizers, which are generally unavailable and uneconomical in the area, or the introduction of technologies such as land terracing and agro-forestry, both of which are labor and capital intensive. Over the longer term, technologies such as these others will have to be investigated because the land fallowing technology as now practiced has its limitations.