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Production
There are several types of rural production system, with the most basic division being between agricultural, agro-pastoral and pastoral systems. (Click here for a detailed description of these systems.) The system of production is determined by a range of factors, of which geography is clearly the most important. Other factors include the marketing system (e.g. demand for one product as compared to another, the experience and capital resources of traders), the financial and banking system (e.g. availability and affordability of credit) and government policy (e.g. development policy, pricing policy, policy on the provision of production inputs, etc.). It is quite possible for two livelihood zones to be similar geographically, but one to be based, for example, upon food and livestock production, while another is given over to the production of sugarcane because agro-ecological conditions are favorable, farmers in the zone are encouraged to grow the crop, there is a processing factory nearby and there are good roads/railways to transport the final product to market.
