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

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2594795
AutoresDolores Koenig (0000-0001-9105-8440, autor de correspondencia)
Año1986
Volumen29
Número3
Páginas107
Fecha de publicación1986-09-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAfrican Studies Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0002-0206 • E-ISSN: 1555-2462
EditorialJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/524086
OpenAlexW2033100924
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas7
Referencias citadas7

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. Thus, in this study the decision of whether or how to allocate resources to peanut farming was one of the key decisions of Kita farmers. Indeed Kita farmers of different strata did make different kinds of decisions about peanut farming. The heaviest investment was clearly made by the middle farmers, who were extremely dependent on this single activity for cash. More affluent farmers grew peanuts also, but as only one of a mix of income earning alternatives. Poor farmers had much less income, only a relatively small part coming from peanut sales. If Mali is to increase food production, it must convince farmers in areas where cash crop production is still important to change to food crops. The strategies to do this, however, will vary with resources available; households with different resource mixes are likely to evaluate alternative crops in the different ways

Agriculture · Agronomy · Biology · Economics · Geography · Social science · Social stratification · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Stratification (seeds · Agriculture and Rural Development Research · Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology