SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Few studies have been devoted exclusively to finding out how the Igbo food crop farmers operate, the patterns of production, the complex factors which affect their decisions, and how these change with time. This study attempts to analyse food crop production systems amongst the Igbo-speaking peoples explaining emergent patterns and changes in terms of the farmers' perceptions of the operational environment. It is an attempt to look at the agricultural system from the point of view of the practitioners - a fundamental departure from past emphasis on explanations based primarily on physical and economic factors. The Introductory chapter provides the background to the study. Then follows a review of agricultural location theories and a plea for more adequate behavioural - models for analysing traditional agricultural systems. Chapter III examines the physical environment which provides matter and energy essential for agricultural operation. Chapter IV examines the genesis of the food production systems and the changes brought about by contact with Europe, Asia and the Americas. Chapter V focuses attention on the present day cultivators, their notions of classification of natural phenomena including crops, land tenure systems and their relationships with agriculture. The goal orientations of the farmers, elements and structural organizations of the farming systems are then examined in Chapter VI as preparation for Chapter VII which deals with the emergent crop production patterns and the changes that have occurred between 1964 and 1977. The next chapter analyses the factors affecting the choice of crops and establishes the paramount importance of certain socio- personal factors. Chapter IX uses case studies of actual family farms to demonstrate the temporal nature of farmers' perceptions of the various factors, how the perceptions are translated into actual decisions, and how the decisions in turn affect the farming landscape. In conclusion, the major findings of the study are stated along with their implications for planning and reorganising traditional food crop production systems.