ABSTRACT
Peasant farmers in purchase areas possess all the basic farming equipment. All have at least one plough, all have a cultivator, all Guruuswa farm owners own a harrow and so do four, or 22.2 per cent of all master farmers in Mutadza. Larger cattle herds also provide peasant farmers with adequate manure; all they require is labour to cart it to their fields. Thus neither shortage of ploughs nor shortage of oxen, the most serious handicaps which face peasant cultivators, exist in purchase areas. Peasant farmers grow the same crops as peasant cultivators in tribal areas, and cash crops play a very minor role. A few Mutadza farm owners grow tobacco and one once attempted cotton, but none of them have been very successful. A great strain on every peasant farmer's labour force is the need for herd boys. Since cattle are generally grazed by each farm owner on his own farm, each farmer must provide his own herder.
