Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T11:30:47.475Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Social Stratification and Labor Allocation in Peanut Farming in the Rural Malian Household

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Dolores Koenig
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

African farmers vary in their access to the basic resources of agricultural production: land, labor, and capital. The availability of these resources affects farmer decisions about choice of crops, crop mixes, and strategies to optimize agricultural production. Understanding the variation in resource availability among farmers and the consequences of that variation for production is one necessary step in understanding the production strategies of contemporary farmers. Understanding their present strategies is a necessary step in transforming African agriculture to better meet the continent's needs.

This paper looks at Malinke farmers in Kita in Western Mali in light of these issues. After some background information on the area and the study, the paper delineates three strata of farmers with different access to basic production resources, the most important of which is labor. The remainder of the paper looks at the consequences of those differing resource availabilities by examining different strategies pursued by affluent, middle, and poor farmers in one crop important in the region, peanuts.

Although Africans are very concerned about food production, it is still important to look at cropping decisions in regard to crops that, like peanuts, are grown primarily for cash. In many places like Kita, these crops are the primary means by which farmers earn money, and they are reluctant to change to crops with unknown earning potential. National governments, too, are hesitant to eliminate export crops totally, for they still need the foreign exchange that they earn.

Type
Articles
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , September 1986 , pp. 107 - 128
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barry, Sara. 1984. “The Food Crisis and Agrarian Change in Africa: A Review Essay.” African Studies Review 27(2):59–112.Google Scholar
Boutillier, Jean-Louis, Cantrelle, P., Cause, J., Aurent, C. and N'Doya, Th. 1962. La Moyenne Vallee du Senegal (Etude Socio-Economique). Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Clute, Robert. 1982. “The Role of Agriculture in African Development.” African Studies Review 25(4): 1–20.Google Scholar
Fleming, Allen. 1979. “Farm Management in Kita, Mali: A Preliminary Report.” Proceedings of the First Workshop on Sahelian Agriculture. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Dept. of Agricultural Economics.Google Scholar
Fleming, Allen. 1981. Agricultural Production and the Use of Labor in Alternative Enterprises in the Circle of Kita, Mali. M.S. thesis, Purdue University.Google Scholar
Hill, Polly. 1972. Rural Hausa: A Village and a Setting. New York: Cambridge.Google Scholar
Koenig, Dolores. 1979. “Socioeconomic Study in the Kita Region, Mali: Preliminary Work and Starting the Survey.” Proceedings of the First Workshop on Sahelian Agriculture. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University, Department of Agricultural Economics.Google Scholar
Koenig, Dolores. 1980. “Household Behavior in the Region of Kita and its. Relationship to Agricultural Change.” Proceedings of the Second Workshop on Sahelian Agriculture. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University, Department of Agricultural Economics.Google Scholar
Koenig, Dolores. 1985a. “Research for Rural Development: Experiences of an Anthropologist in Rural Mali.” Anthropology and Rural Development in West Africa. Horowitz, M.M. and Painter, T.M. (eds.). Boulder, CO: Westview.Google Scholar
Koenig, Dolores. 1985b. “Grain Fanning in the West African Savannah: Division of Labor and Prospects for Development.” Paper Presented at the Meetings of the African Studies Association, New Orleans, November.Google Scholar
Lewis, John Van Dusen. 1978. “Small Farmer Credit and the Village Production Unit in Rural Mali.” African Studies Review 2(3): 29–48.Google Scholar
Long, Norman. 1977. An Introduction to the Sociology of Rural Development. London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Meillassoux, Claude. 1975. Femmes, Greniers et Capitaux. Paris: Maspero.Google Scholar
Norman, David. 1977. “Economic Rationality of Traditional Hausa Dryland Farmers in the North of Nigeria.” Tradition and Dynamics in Small Farm Agriculture. Stevens, Robert D. (ed.). Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press.Google Scholar
Raynaut, Claude, 1980. “The Contribution of the Anthropologist in the Study of Agricultural Production Systems (The Case of Maradi and Niger).” Proceedings of the Second Workshop on Sahelian Agriculture. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University, Department of Agricultural Economics.Google Scholar
Stavenhagen, Rodolfo. 1975. Social Classes in Agrarian Societies. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday.Google Scholar
Unite d' Evaluation. 1977. Resultats Partiels de l'Enguete Suivi d'Exploitations Operation Arachide et Cultures Vivrieres 1976/177. Bamako: Institut d'Economie Rurale (mimeo.).Google Scholar
Waldstein, Alfred. 1985. “Irrigated Agriculture as an Archetypal Development Project: Senegal.” Anthropology and Rural Development in West Africa. Horowitz, M.M. and Painter, I.M. (eds.) Boulder, CO: Westview.Google Scholar
World Bank. 1981. “IDA Approves Credit for Technical Assistance to Mali.” IDA News Release No. 82/3. Washington, DC: The World Bank.Google Scholar