The farm household as both producer and consumer

Tropical farm household systems are relatively complex, involving both production (of crops, livestock and off-farm income) and consumption (of food, other basic needs and some leisure). The allocation of productive resources and the choice of activities are the result of decisions made by members of the farm household. For simplicity we proceed as though these decisions are made by a single individual, the ‘farmer’, whilst recognizing that the real world situation is more complicated. In this chapter we explore in more detail how these decisions are made.

It is assumed that farmers are rational, in the broad sense, in pursing certain meaningful objectives. Studies of tropical farm households have shown that farmers have a consistent set of objectives which guide their behaviour. For example a survey of 150 farmers in Bendel State, Nigeria, in 1991, showed that they identified six main objectives and ranked them, on average, in the following order of priority;

1. 1 food: provide food for family from own farms,

2. 2 educate: provide for the education of own children,

3. 3 debt: strive to repay debts and avoid more,

4. 4 profit: make the most profit from farming,

5. 5 employ: employ family members on own farm,

6. 6 leisure: arrange work so as to have more hours off farm work (Akatugba 1992).

It seems reasonable to suppose that for most of these items, except debt and perhaps employment, the farmers would prefer more rather than less.