ABSTRACT
This chapter examines responses to the need for making better use of the local earning capacity. The cash-starved Mambwe have indeed reacted to this need in various ways. In the food production sector reactions to the dearth of cash, and to the need for higher production, have taken on a variety of styles. Three such styles can be discerned from the point of view of the Mambwe villager. They differ according to the nature of government assistance, the use made of labour resources, and the availability of land. As Van Donge has suggested, referring to Long, the allocation of credit is one important issue, but 'a farmer must also obtain land and organise a labor force'. Observations on land and labour cannot be fully understood unless one also knows about developments in cash needs and sources of income. The Mambwe grassland response to the cash constraint, including the reaction of its local-level party leaders, developed along similar lines.
