ABSTRACT
In tribal society, personal security is manifest in community organization and perhaps represents the earliest step in welfare economics. The quantity of food, its nutritional quality, its reliability of supply, and preferred taste are four types of motivation dominating decision making and resource allocation in traditional African agriculture. A balance of quantity, quality, preference, and reliability is manifest in the traditional practices of the system. These are susceptible to evolution over time and to trial and error by the individual farmer. Motivations centered on food supply dominate priorities in the allocation of resources for the productive activity in smallholder farming. With the farming system directed to wider ends than marketed production, the scope of investigation increases. The need in the system may be a crop with a particular growth pattern rather than one with a high yield.
