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- Title
The collapse of the family farm in West Africa? Evidence from Mali.
- Authors
Becker, Laurence C.
- Abstract
This article examines the relationship between land tenure, social structure, and agricultural production at village, household and sub-household levels in a Bambara village 50 kilometres south-east of Bamako, Mali. The analysis focuses on the operation of agricultural production units. It draws from seven months' field research in 1987. At the village level, the chief plays a central role in allocating land to the heads of households. At the household level, the heads of household control the dominant units of production, but households themselves have production unit subdivisions each with access to land. The assumption that large peasant households necessarily break up when commodity production enters the domestic economy is challenged. Where such farming systems have persisted, farmers may have developed innovative ways to organize land and labour.
- Subjects
MALI; FARM life; AGRICULTURE; LAND tenure
- Publication
Geographical Journal, 1990, Vol 156, Issue 3, p313
- ISSN
0016-7398
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/635532