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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Dolores Koenig
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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

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