The study said the region had been badly hit by drought in recent years, resulting in chronic poverty. Coping mechanisms included switching from traditional maize varieties to short-maturing maize, beans and cowpeas. Farmers also switched from largely subsistence farming to cash crops such as cotton. This switch has led to the increased importance of child labour because it is children who do the picking. The study noted that the importance of children's labour has been demonstrated through the increased resistance to labour transfer between households.
Households strive to maintain their labour pool by contesting the custody of children.
The traditional practice upon divorce had been that the wife received a cash sum from her husband and returned to her family with her children. But recently there has been a growing demand from the husband's family or the husband himself for the custody of the children, especially older sons. This is recognised to be because of the value of their labour and their future earning potential. According to the study, fertility is becoming a negotiated commodity by unmarried young women, giving them and their families access to cash and labour. Many of the young women surveyed in the study said there were advantages to becoming mothers before marriage.