There are nine total workers on the Chiuswa farm during the rainy season. Joseph Chiuswa (Baba), the owner of the farm, is 86 years old and does not work in the fields. Robert and Everisto Chiuswa are children from Mr. Chiuswa's first marriage, and now have sons who are not yet old enough to work on the farm. When Mr. Chiuswa's first wife died in 1979, he remarried and had four more children, three of which are now old enough to work on the farm. Tichaona Chiuswa, Mr. Chiuswa's nephew, also lives and works with the Chiuswa family. Some of Tichaonas friends also volunteer to take part in the daily operation of the farm.

Mr. Chiuswa's land was given to him by the government in 1959 as part of the Land Resettlement Act motivated by growing population pressures including within Great Zimbabwe where Mr. Chiuswa then lived. The land in Chesa was originally forested, but Mr. Chiuswa as well as the other settlers included in the same distribution program, clear-cut most of the land to make room for crops. According to him, the land was given with no debt to repay to the government . As owner of the land, Mr. Chiuswa may pass on ownership of the farm to whomever he wishes, in this case, that will be Everisto.

To improve yields, the Chiuswa's spray and fertilize their crops. The tobacco, cotton, and maize fields all receive one or more regular chemical sprays of Kogar, Thidon, Cottongard, or Cabril insecticide and herbicide sprays. Groundnuts are fertilized but not sprayed and roundnuts are not treated at all. The Chiuswa's purchase these sprays and fertilizers annually in Harare. To minimize purchased fertilizer-inputs, the family plants sweetroot in the maize fields as polyculture and collects cattle manure in a kraal, which is subsequently shoveled on to cropland. The seeds for these crops, with the exception of sweetroot, are also purchased annually in Harare.

The families non-organic approach to farming makes sense under the circumstances of their smallholder operation. Because the family sells its crop primarily to a market concerned with reselling food items for as little as possible, the use of chemical sprays to decrease the amount of labor required per acre makes economic sense. According to Tichaona, the Chiuswa's have been using these and similar sprays for more than ten years without noticeable damage to soil productivity.

All water for the family's needs including irrigation, cooking, cleaning, and drinking is drawn from one of three nearby lakes (dams). The closest lake is approximately 2 kilometers from the field. Water is fetched with a team of cattle behind a scotchcart containing an empty oil drum. All of the watering is done by hand through buckets and spray-cans owned by the family and shared with other neighboring families. These lakes experience a fair amount of runoff from the nearby fields, as noticeable by the thick green cloudiness of the water, indicative of high nitrogen content. This may indicate that there are more efficient ways of fertilizing the soil to insure that less nitrogen is leeched into the lakes.

Waste products, with the exception of manure, are not recycled. All combustible waste is disposed of in the kitchen fire whereas non-combustible wastes, such as plastic wrappers, are disposed of in an outdoor latrine. Often small consumer waste products, such as plastic wrappers or cans, are littered about on the ground. The family generates very little waste overall and ironically, it seemed as though that gifts brought by ourselves as guests produced more paper and plastic waste than the family as a whole had produced in a long time.

The work at the Chiuswa farm is seasonal. In October, there is very little to do because there is not sufficient rain to begin planting, and tobacco is the only crop being maintained. The maize is usually shelled and the cotton picked from May to September. This explains in part why an unusually high number of memorial services seemed to be held during the month of October. It is the month for most families in which there is little else to do.

The Chiuswa's sell approximately 4 of the 6 tons of maize produced every year. In addition, they are able to sell on average 5-6 bales of cotton and 1 bale of tobacco. Last year, however, excessive rains waterlogged the cotton and tobacco crops and rendered them unsuitable for sale. The family income for that year was comprised entirely from the selling of 4 tons of maize at $1500 per ton. In normal years, the family is also able to sell the cotton and tobacco at $3500 and $900 (1999 prices) per bale, respectively. This year it is hoped that the family will generate $14,000 from the sale of maize at $3500 per ton (1999 prices) in addition to revenue from tobacco and cotton sales. The family has also reduced its number of livestock in the hopes of planting more maize and may therefore generate more than the average 4 tons. For traditional reasons, the family does not sell any of its livestock.

The Chiuswa farm is typical among the other farms in the Chesa district. Their small-scale commercial operation affords them very few luxuries and what little money is earned from commercial crop sales is most often put towards the purchase of food. There is no shortage of food at the farm. According to Tichaona Chiuswa, even towards the end of the dry season, the storehouse of maize and groundnuts will provide the family with approximately a years worth of food before food shortage begins to be a problem .

Though the Chiuswa's are able to meet all their basic needs, discontent regarding the family's economic situation still runs high. The working age children seek to live and work in Harare in the future and have dreams of a more comfortable life in the city. They were not aware of the severity of the job shortage in the city nor were they discouraged by news of it. From observations in Mbare, where large numbers of recent urban migrants to Harare are cloistered, these expectations of an easier lifestyle in the city may be overly optimistic . It is hoped that with increased family planning efforts in the rural sector as well as government capital investment in rural agriculture, family income from farming will increase enough such that urban migration comes to be seen as disadvantageous to currently rural families. Though efforts are underway now, this sort of solution to rural poverty lies at least a generation or more away.

-- Eric Bielke