| dc.description.abstract | This study examines the effects of small scale sugarcane
farming on the socio-cultural and economic statuses of the
people of North Bunyala. The introduction of sugarcane
farming among small scale farmers in the area was an
intervention calculated to assist this rural community to make
an upward socio-cultural and economic mobility. The study was
therefore interested in understanding the extent to which
sugarcane cultivation was accepted by the farmers as an
agricultural innovation. And, because there was a five year
delay in the purchase of the crop, how that factor impacted
the intended socio-cultural and economic improvement of the
farmers who adopted the crop.
Guided by the modes of production theoretical
perspective, and an ethnoscientific approach, the study
compared the socio-cultural and economic statuses of the
farmers before and after they cutivated sugarcane. This
exercise first established the ethnography of Abanyala with
emphasis on their socio-cultural and economic systems through
a study of both secondary and primary sources. Fieldwork
provided information on the post-sugarcane cultivation phase.
It was initially assumed that since the sugarcane crop
was not sold up to the time research was conducted, its
effects on the farmers would have been adverse. However, on
realizing that they could not dispose of their crop as
promised by the Nzoia Sugar Company, the farmers decided to
engage themselves in other economic activities, thus improving
to supplement their incomes. It is our view, therefore, that
these positive developments were not direct results of their
adopting sugarcane farming.
The second observation is that adoption of sugarcane
farming in the area under discussion reduced to some degree
the land for food production. This factor in turn placed
constraints on the variety, and amount of food crops
cultivated. Consequently, we found changes in the farmers'
economic system. Specifically product ion, consumption and
distribution of food changed from being based on the extended
family unit of the past and is now centered on the nuclear
family unit. This. is to say that the important position that
the extended family held in this sphere has greatly declined.
Nevertheless, since we did not conduct a comparative study
between sugarcane and non-sugarcane growers, it is difficult
to say with certainity whether the observed change was or was
not an impact of the adoption of the sugarcane farming by the
families studied.
The practical implications of the findings of this
research to development planning are explicit. First is the
fact that peasants have often survived under very difficult,
conditions, and have accumulated knowledge of their own
environment, along with problems and various alternative
prescriptions for solving them. Second, planners need to
learn to tap this knowledge for application at both local and
national levels. The smallholders' response to the sugarcane
farming project points to the fact that socia-cultural and
economic intervention processes as packages have a multiple
potential to effect change, either as planned or not. Even
the unexpected can happen. | en |
