Experience has shown that income, as determined by yields, is the most important factor determining the amount of time and effort devoted to farming. The following categorization of farmers is, therefore, based on income as the main determinant. Food gardens Home gardeners are part-time producers working on plots of varying size. Production is mainly for home consumption. Surplus production is sold.
Group gardens Consist of individual or collective plots in an enclosed area.
Production is for consumption and sale. Group gardens play a crucial role in poverty alleviation. School gardens Some schools, very few, established gardens for the production of vegetables for sale or consumption at school. Properly run school gardens coupled with school-feeding programmes, could help in alleviating hunger among school children as well as improving the image of agriculture, which has become the occupation of old people in black communities. Commercial farmers are the mainstays of the agricultural sector, producing the food and raw material for local use and export.