TY - JOUR

T1 - Multiple outcomes of cultivation in the Sahel

T2 - a call for a multifunctional view of farmers' incentives

AU - Rasmussen, Laura Vang

AU - Reenberg, Anette

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - A default assumption about the Sahel is that farmers consider food provision for the family as the sole reason for cultivation. The degree to which this ‘cultivation for food’ assumption has been embedded in the scientific literature on land use changes is signified by the fact that hardly any studies have questioned it. This article suggests that the notion of ‘cultivation for food’ tends to downplay a number of additional cultivation outcomes. By employing a conceptual framework that incorporates the concept of multifunctional agriculture, which was primarily developed for analysis of agriculture in the Global North, the study explores agricultural transitions in two villages in Burkina Faso. The analysis reveals that several household types exist, and one cannot assume that food provision is and always has been the main cultivation outcome. On the contrary, it was found that households have moved away from a sole focus on food production. Households have started to value additional cultivation outcomes like fodder production, preservation of farm identity, attachment to the village and prestige, with important differentiations between the identified household types. Hence, the paper argues that researchers and policy-makers must face the reality of new agricultural transitional pathways in the Global South.

AB - A default assumption about the Sahel is that farmers consider food provision for the family as the sole reason for cultivation. The degree to which this ‘cultivation for food’ assumption has been embedded in the scientific literature on land use changes is signified by the fact that hardly any studies have questioned it. This article suggests that the notion of ‘cultivation for food’ tends to downplay a number of additional cultivation outcomes. By employing a conceptual framework that incorporates the concept of multifunctional agriculture, which was primarily developed for analysis of agriculture in the Global North, the study explores agricultural transitions in two villages in Burkina Faso. The analysis reveals that several household types exist, and one cannot assume that food provision is and always has been the main cultivation outcome. On the contrary, it was found that households have moved away from a sole focus on food production. Households have started to value additional cultivation outcomes like fodder production, preservation of farm identity, attachment to the village and prestige, with important differentiations between the identified household types. Hence, the paper argues that researchers and policy-makers must face the reality of new agricultural transitional pathways in the Global South.

U2 - 10.1080/14735903.2013.826048

DO - 10.1080/14735903.2013.826048

M3 - Journal article

VL - 13

SP - 1

EP - 22

JO - International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability

JF - International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability

SN - 1473-5903

IS - 1

ER -