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Breaking up the bottlenecks in food-crop and cotton cultivation in northern Côte d'Ivoire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Thomas J. Bassett
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Extract

It is widely recognised that seasonal labour bottlenecks present major obstacles to peasant farmers seeking to expand agricultural output in sub-Saharan Africa. Evidence from Nigeria and Sierra Leone, for example, reveals that labour shortages and limited income to hire off-farm labour have historically constrained rural producers from intensifying and enlarging their agricultural operations (Norman et al., 1979: 42–7; Watts, 1983: 202–3; Richards, 1985: 96). Many attempts by colonial and contemporary African States to promote food crop and export crop production failed, in part, because of peasant resistance to the threat of subsistence insecurity associated with labour conflicts in the agricultural calendar. Richards's (1986) study of the failure of a series of labour-intensive wet rice cultivation projects in central Sierra Leone illustrates the degree to which peasant agricultural practices represent adjustments to labour-supply problems. Given the pervasiveness and importance of seasonal labour constraints in African agricultural systems, it is surprising that ‘few studies have provided insights into the adjustment in labor use resulting from the introduction of cash crops and new technologies’ (Eicher and Baker, 1982: 99).

Résumé

Suppression des problèmes des cultures alimentaires et de la culture du coton dans le nord de la Côte d'Ivoire

Cet article examine comment les paysans de la région du Katiali, au nord de la Côte d'Ivoire, font face aux problèmes de main-d'oeuvre dans un système d'exploitation concentré sur la culture du coton. Il analyse les solutions, durant les périodes de travail les plus intensives, chez des families de statuts économiques différents et ceci à trois niveaux: (1) au niveau de la gestion du travail, (2) au niveau des pratiques agricoles et (3) dans le contexte d'un changement de culture. Des essais de rationalisation de l'emploi de la main-d'oeuvre durant les périodes difficiles semblent être la cause principale des changements du système d'exploitation. Les principaux changements affectent l'emploi du temps des activités agricoles, le choix des cultures, l'utilisation de techniques modernes et l'organisation sociale du travail. Cette réorganisation de la production agricole doit être considérée dans le contexte (1) de facteurs déterminants locaux, comme la distribution pluviométrique, les systèmes de cultures compétitifs, la différenciation familiale et le souci du paysan de subvenir à ses besoins et (2) de facteurs politico-économiques plus généraux comme les politiques de développement des systèmes coloniaux et modernes et le rôle interventionniste des capitaux internes et étrangers dans l'économie rurale.

Type
Breaking labour bottlenecks
Information
Africa , Volume 58 , Issue 2 , April 1988 , pp. 147 - 174
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1988

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