the role of tourism in natural resource management in the okavango ...

third furrow planting and mechanical row planting. Mixed cropping is generally
undertaken, with the most common mixture being that of cereals and cowpeas,
melons and sweet sorghum (Makhwaje et ai, 1995).
The principal crops grown in the Delta region include sorghum, maize and millet.
The secondary crops include cowpeas, groundnuts, melons, pumpkins, sweet
sorghum, courgettes, gourds and jugobeans. Sorghum is generally grown in the
eastern edge of the Delta and maize in the west. In the lower Delta, near Maun,
maize was the predominant crop grown within the Molapo farming system. However,
there has been a shift to sorghum due to unreliability of flooding in this lower region,
which is essential in providing adequate moisture for the production of maize. Higher
up in the Delta and the Panhandle region, maize is still the predominant crop grown
using the Molapo system, while millet and sorghum are grown within the dryland
farming system (Makhwaje et ai, 1995).
The average size of cropping areas in the Okavango Delta region range between
0,5 to 16 hectares. Dryland cropping areas generally range between 0,5 to 6
hectares in size. The most common crop management practices undertaken within
the region include weeding, bird scaring, which is generally a female activity, with
limited help from the men, and wildlife scaring, which is generally done at night and
is solely a male activity (Makhwaje et ai, 1995).
In the Okavango Delta region, crop yields tend to be higher from the Molapo system
than the dryland farming system. This is generally due to the soils along and within
the river beds and f100dplains being more fertile and moist from the annual flooding.
However, actual yields are not easy to measure per hectare due to the unreliability
of farming in this region. The estimates, represented in Table 5.3 are, however,
accepted as average annual yields per household.
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