Zambezia (1975-6), 4 (ii).RESEARCH REPORTDEVELOPMENT IN RURAL COMMUNITIESA WIDE-REACHING programme of socio-cultural and agro-economic researchhas been conducted in the Que Que Tribal Trust Land in order to achieve acomprehensive understanding of problems of development by means of ananalysis of the ecological variables governing the adjustment and adaptionof the people and their environment. Only a few of the main findings aresummarized and discussed in this article.A THEORY OF ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOURMotivation for adaptive behaviour involves innate decision-making pro-cesses in response to stress and anxiety. These innate processes are influencedby different aspects of family security, such as religion, education, land andlivestock, which modify, direct and control the way in which the familyreacts to stress. In other words, when a family is faced with a stress situation,the members of that family identify and orientate themselves according totheir source of security in order to arrive at a decision that will result inaction designed to resolve the anxiety. This stress-security theory of adaptivebehaviour has been verified bv statistics from a 'stress adjustment survey'.This survey shows, for example, that families with more than six head ofcattle are secure and will not only develop favourable attitudes to innovations,but will also accept and practise innovations more readily than families withless than six head of livestock who are not secure. Thus the complex inter-relationship between stress (with its associated feelings of anxiety) andsecurity (with its associated feelings of confidence and assurance) gives riseto an innate reaction that motivates behaviour or social action to accom-modate or resolve anxiety.1A MODEL OF NUTRITIONAL STRESSDuring the initial stages of research in the Que Que Tribal Trust Land,it became apparent that a measure of the stressing forces acting on the com-munity was required in order to enable a proper investigation of the variableswhich influence development.A series of agro-economic and health surveys was then conducted tomeasure nutritional stress acting on a representative random sample of tribalfamilies. These surveys were specifically designed to determine the securityvariables important to the satisfaction of nutritional needs, and also to measurethe reaction of the community to nutritional stress. An analysis of data fromthis survey has led to the construction of a Nutritional Stress Scale which hasbeen extensively used for the measurement and evaluation of independentvariables in influencing the nutritional status of rural families.21 Identification is an important adjustment mechanism which generally operates ona subconscious level. An example of conscious outward expression of security identificationconcerns the Shona custom of 'Gono (dedication of the bull)'. This practice illustrates aprocess of adjustment which employs identification to relate two important sources ofsecurity, livestock and religion,2 The construction of the Nutritional Stress Scale has been fully explained in R. J.Th**isen 'The Cultivation of Vleis in the Que Que Tribal Trust Land', (unpubl. paper,1974).93194DEVELOPMENT IN RURAL COMMUNITIESThe scale is built up from a number of factors concerning family diet,in particular the carbohydrate and protein sufficiency of the diet. Eachfamily is initially given a dietary code which indicates its level of food suffi-ciency. These dietary codes are then compared with stated needs given byfamily heads, and also with standards of dietary needs as given in Davidson,3in order to categorise the families according to a simple five-point NutritionalStress Scale with subsistence at the median point.The use of the scale has enabled the identification of six primary variableswhich relate to both the nutritional and agro-economic status of the family.These variables are: the cultivation of vlei land; the possession of livestock;years of school education of the family head and his wife; family health;religion; the migration and wage earnings of family heads.4In the diagram which follows the Nutritional Stress Scale is used toillustrate the linear and progressive influence of the first three variables onfamily nutrition, child health and child mortality.HEALTHr oi children under the 10thpercentile height for age:'Harvard standard'% CHILD MORTALITY1969/70 Drought season by scale.70-50-30-10,S,sN^*****ŠŠŠ^.'^"^Ł^-2 -1 0 +1 +2Stress Stress Subsistence Surplus SurplusVLEILANDLIVESTOCKSCHOOLEDUCATIONMean% ofMean% of% of% ofacres used by familyfamilies owning vlei6L.U. per familyfamilies owning stockliteratesheads & wives literate0,18281,75736430,40444,08047520,51575,58465730,52837,010077841,61006,8100861003 Sir Leybourne Stanley P. Davidson et al., Human Nutrition and Dietetics (Edin-burgh, Churchill. 1973).4 It is interesting to note that the 'stress adjustment survey' shows that the sixprimary variables have a significant influence on the ability of the family to acceptinnovations such as irrigation and family planning. These variables also influencepopulation growth.s The health assessment is based on the height-for-age rating of school childrenaccording to the 'Harvard standards'. Children below the 10th percentile are consideredmalnourished and/or unhealthy. See also M. Bohdal et al., 'A comparison of the nutri-tional indices in healthy African, Asian and European children', Bulletin of the WorldHealth Organisation (1969), 40. 166-74.e L.U. = Large Unit fof Stock] ; i.e. 5 goats or sheep = 1 L.U.R. J. THEISEN95Children below the 10th pereentile height for age vary from 71 per centin the below-subsistence '-2' category to 25 per cent in the above-subsistencecategories; while child mortality varies from 25 per cent in the below sub-sistence categories to 12 per cent in the above subsistence categories.7Although cause and effect relationships are implied by the foregoinganalysis it is important to notice that such relationships cannot be fullysubstantiated. For example, it could be suggested that better educatedfamilies are well adjusted and would therefore cultivate more vlei land,which could provide more money for the purchase of livestock, which wouldin turn mean more milk and meat and therefore healthier families. Theconverse, however, could also be suggested in that healthier families couldhave more available time and energy for farming and would therefore obtainbetter crop and livestock productivity with cash and draught for the cultiva-tion of more vlei land. This could mean a higher standard of living with moremonev, time and incentive for family education.The important point is that these primary variables are inter-correlated,and that a change in any one is likely to influence a beneficial or detrimentalchange in any other.The following discussion indicates the significance of the nutritionalstress variables to the overall development of the community.VARIABLES OF DEVELOPMENTFamily health could be considered as a dependent variable which iseffected by vlei cultivation, possession of livestock, and school education.8However, it is also obviously an independent variable which may causemaladjustment, especially in uneducated families. For example, a healthsurvey that I have conducted9 shows that members of unhealthy familiesgenerally spend considerable time and effort in determining the causes andeffecting cures of child illnesses, while the stress adjustment survey showsthat some of these families appear to undergo a mental regression by whichthe head and his wife become so obsessed with causes and cures that agricul-tural production takes secondary place.An analysis of data using the Nutritional Stress Scale shows that familiesbelow the subsistence level have no surplus energy for response to externalstimuli, such as the provision of proper medical attention for their children,or the practice of innovations, such as irrigation and grazing management.All available energy is turned inwards for survival and resnonse to extensionservices and other agencies of change becomes impossible. These familiessimply do not have the necessary material, physical and mental resources toeffect change. Development under these circumstances needs to be supported,with an input of resources from an external source.A school survey also shows that health and nutrition have a significantinfluence on the mental ability and academic achievement of school childrenwhich could in turn influence their adjustment in later life.107 In the 1969-70 drought season 8 per cent of families fell in the '-2' subsistencecategory; 29 per cent in the '-1' category, 38 per cent in the 'O' or subsistence category,15 per cent in the '+1' above-subsistence category and 10 per cent in the ' + 2' category.e R. J. Theisen, Agro-Economic Factors relating to the Health and AcademicAchievement of Rural School Children (Salisbury, The Tribal Trust Areas of RhodesiaResearch Foundation, 1974).a The health survey was partly designed by Dr D. M. Taylor, Government MedicalSpecialist. General Hospital, Gwelo.'o Theisen, Agro-Economic Factors, The School survey was conducted in 1972through a field liaison between the Department of Health (Dr J. C. A. Davies) and theUniversity of Rhodesia.96DEVELOPMENT IN RURAL COMMUNITIESSchool education is an important variable of development. The critical pointin the education of women lies at literacy or semi-literacy when at least threeyears of school education have been achieved. At literacy women show amarked ability for adjustment and are much more likely to practise agricul-tural innovations such as the use of fertilizer and kraal compost to improvecrop yields. Therefore literacy in married women is associated with a signific-ant improvement in crop yields and family nutrition. Once literacy has beenachieved, however, further education is not very significant until secondaryschool (Grade 8), is reached, whereupon western-orientated social attitudesand ideals become important in respect of matters such as family planningand the cash economy. In the Que Que Tribal Trust Land, 61 per cent ofmarried women are literate.The critical point in the education of men is not reached until six yearsof school education has been achieved. At this level attitudes and practicesrelating to the acceptance of agricultural innovations such as irrigation andgraving management become significant. By comparison to women, it isapparent that men are less concerned with agricultural production and moreconcerned with wage earnings. For this reason agriculturally orientated atti-tudes and motives can be exDected to develop at a later stage in the educa-tion continuum. In the Que Que Tribal Trust Land, 74 per cent of men (familyheads) are literate while 26 per cent have achieved six or more years of schooleducation.The sum of school education of the family head and his wife, 'familyeducation', has proved a most useful statistic in the evaluation of educationalinfluences in respect of develooment variables. For examnle, it can be shownthat family education is significantly related to crop yields, family nutritionand health family size, attitude to agricultural innovations, and family plann-ing.Migration of family heads. The stress adjustment survey shows that theabsence of the male head of the family over long neriods of time has a seriousaffect on the ability of the family to adjust. The stress and such loss ofcohesion of the family caused by the absence of the head gives rise to adegree of functional disorganization within the family. For examole, the wifemay suddenly find herself unable to cope with added responsibilities such asmaking kraal compost and dealing with stock which are traditionally a man'swork. This results in a reduction in crop yields which has a significant in-fluence on the nutrition and health of the family. In fact the agro-economicsurvey shows that there is a 40 per cent reduction in crop yields when thefamily hef\d is absent for more than nme months of the year. This survey alsoshows that the absence of the family head results in the development ofnegative or undefined attitudes to the acceptance of innovations and evento sending children to school (significant at less than .01 by rank analysis).Cultivation of vlei land. This land has a. high seasonal water-table that limitsnatural vegetation to short grassland. Vlei land is also low-lying and fertile,and the high moisture status of the so'l not only enables some form of croppingthroughout the year, but also provides an insurance against drought. Vleiland is usually planted to green mealies early in September end then inter-cropped with rice when the first rains set in. By January or February mostof the green mealie crop is harvested and sold in Gwelo and Que Que. Thestover is then removed from the land for livestock feeding. This enables therice to grow and mature under ontimum conditions when the water-table isgenerally within an inch or two of the soil surface. During winter the vlei isplanted to vegetables, usually for home consumption.R. J. THEISEN97About 60 per cent of families cultivate vlei land. The average holdingcultivated is 1,1 acres, and the yield per acre is generally five times greaterthan that obtained from dry-land holdings.During the 1969-70 drought season 84 per cent of vlei-land cultivatorsproduced sufficient crops for subsistence requirements, while only 21 per centof dry land cultivators produced their subsistence needs. Furthermore thewhole crop economy is based on vlei cultivation which, in 1969-70, broughtin a cash return per acre of Rh$ 14,50 as compared with a return per acre ofRh$0,58 from dry-land holdings. Data from the agro-economic survey showsthat in a drought season the health of the family head and his wife as definedby the number of illnesses and days of house rest is significantly related to thecultivation of vlei land, as also is the health of school children."Livestock is an important source of security to the family. Stock providesthe family with meat and milk; with draught, for the haulage of compost andanthill and for early ploughing and planting; and kraal compost which isessential for the maintenance of soil fertility and crop yields. The aero-economic survey shows that a minimum of 6 L.U. is required to ensure sub-sistence nutrition, and that crop yields are directly related to the possession oflivestock. During the 1969-70 drought season families with less than 2 L.U.(29 Der cent) applied an average of 2,8 scotch carts of manure and anthillto their arable lands which gave an average harvest of only 347 kg of grainper family and 85 kg of grain per acre; while families with 6 L.U. or more(38 per cent) applied an average of 21 scotch carts of manure and anthill totheir arable holdings and achieved an average crop harvest of 1053 kg perfamily giving a yield per acre of 155 kg of grain.12 The agro-economic surveyshows that family health is also directly related to possession of livestock.Religion is a significant and interesting variable of family nutrition andagricultural production, but it cannot be fully discussed in this research report.It is, however, interesting to note that members of certain religious denomina-tions which have strong internal cohesion, such as the Seventh Day Adventistsand the Salvation Army, persistently obtain better crop yields than do membersof the less cohesive denominations. This could be partly due to the fact thatSeventh Day Adventists and the Salvation Army have a more effective agri-cultural policy by comparison to less cohesive denominations. Also themembers of these two churches consume very little beer, while beer drinkingby the general population often becomes excessive, especially in times of stress.is A full analysis has been given in Theisen, 'The Cultivation of Vleis in theQue Que Tribal Trust Land' 'Dry-land cultivators' refer to families who only cultivatedry-land holdings and who rely on rainfall rather than on subterranean moisture forpioduction. 'Vlei-land cultivators' are families who normally cultivate both vlei landand dry land.12 Anthill improves soil fertility and crop yields in that it forms an important sourceof colloidal material and mineral salts, and it also has a neutralizing effect on the acidsandy soils which form 90 per cent of the arable.DEVELOPMENT IN RURAL COMMUNITIESCONCLUSIONFrom the foregoing discussion it becomes obvious that the six primaryvariables which influence the nutrition and agro-economic status of the familyare vitally important to development since they provide the family with theessential material and mental resources required for adaption and adjustment.These security variables also influence population growth, as I hope to showin a later research report.The overall analysis suggests that the rapid development of subsistenceand especially below subsistence communities cannot be achieved throughthe official Government Policy of Community Development, which is basedon principles of 'self-help' and which is largely innitiated and actioned by thepeople themselves. Severely stressed families simply do not have the material,physical and mental resources for this form of development to be successful.A new dynamic approach is therefore required for the development of stressedcommunities. Such an approach could be referred to as Supported Develop-ment in that the initiative and input of resources would come from outsidethe community rather from within.University of RhodesiaR. J. THEISEN