The village of Monze has been very badly affected by the regularly occurring droughts of the 1980s and 1990s. The Impact of Drought on Poverty Maize is particularly susceptible to dry conditions.
Droughts reduce or destroy the maize crop.
The resulting poverty has forced the families in the village to look for new ways of subsisting. There have been two essential strategies. Firstly switching from the traditional maize growing to producing crops that have a shorter growing cycle such as beans and cowpeas. Secondly switching from subsistence agriculture to the production of cash crops such as cotton which are then sold and the proceeds spent on maize and other necessities. The movement to producing cash crops such as cotton, a more labour intensive crop, means that more labour is needed for picking.