Crop-Livestock Integration in Mali: Multiple Pathways of Change
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PATHWAYS OF CHANGE: CROPS, LIVESTOCK AND LIVELIHOODS IN AFRICA LESSONS FROM ETHIOPIA, MALI AND ZIMBABWE Edited by IAN SCOONES AND WILLIAM WOLMER INSTITUTE OF DEVELOPMENT STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX JUNE 2000 TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS....................................................................III CHAPTER 1: PATHWAYS OF CHANGE: CROP-LIVESTOCK INTEGRATION IN AFRICA....................................................................................................................................1 Introduction............................................................................................................................1 The case studies: Ethiopia, Mali and Zimbabwe ...................................................................2 The emergence of the mixed farming approach ....................................................................3 What are the core assumptions of the conventional approach to crop-livestock integration? ................................................................................................................................................4 What are the policy conclusions of the conventional approach?.........................................10 Why has the ‘mixed farming model’ dominated policy?.....................................................14 What’s wrong with the evolutionary model of crop-livestock integration? ........................17 New perspectives on crop-livestock integration..................................................................20 Conclusions: implications for policy and practice...............................................................26 CHAPTER 2: CROP-LIVESTOCK INTEGRATION IN MALI: MULTIPLE PATHWAYS OF CHANGE .................................................................................................29 Introduction..........................................................................................................................29 The case study sites..............................................................................................................30 Land, water and farming systems ........................................................................................40 Crop-livestock interactions ..................................................................................................47 Key events influencing crop-livestock integration in Mali..................................................51 Institutions mediating access to crop and livestock resources.............................................62 Differentiated strategies and multiple pathways..................................................................74 Conclusions: Implications for policy...................................................................................78 CHAPTER 3: COMPLEXITY, CHANGE AND CONTINUITY: THE CASE OF CROP-LIVESTOCK INTEGRATION IN SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA ............................81 Introduction..........................................................................................................................81 The study sites......................................................................................................................83 Components of crop livestock integration ...........................................................................92 Histories of change: key events and the impact on farming practices in southern Ethiopia97 Institutional arrangements and crop livestock integration.................................................106 Pathways of change............................................................................................................115 Conclusions........................................................................................................................119 CHAPTER 4: CROPS, LIVESTOCK AND LIVELIHOODS IN ZIMBABWE...........122 Introduction........................................................................................................................122 The case study sites............................................................................................................122 The farming systems..........................................................................................................124 i Agricultural history: key events influencing crop-livestock interactions..........................132 Institutions mediating access to resources central to crop-livestock systems....................143 Social differentiation..........................................................................................................155 Multiple pathways of change.............................................................................................158 Conclusions........................................................................................................................161 CHAPTER 5: CROP-LIVESTOCK POLICY IN AFRICA: WHAT IS TO BE DONE? ................................................................................................................................................162 Introduction........................................................................................................................162 Current policy has an incomplete focus.............................................................................164 Continuity and change: understanding policy processes ...................................................171 What priorities are missing from current research and extension?....................................173 New approaches to technology design and choice ............................................................181 Challenges for the policy process ......................................................................................186 Conclusions........................................................................................................................188 REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................122 ii PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Mixed farming, involving the integration of crops and livestock on a single farm, is often seen as an important route to meeting the vital 21st century challenge of increasing the productivity and sustainability of small-scale African farming systems. Advocates of mixed farming argue that such systems improve on what are claimed to be low productivity and destructive forms of shifting cultivation or transhumant pastoralism, and that mixed farming is more sustainable and appropriate to many Africa settings than high external input alternatives. Over many years a huge amount of investment in technology development has occurred in order to support mixed farming – soil fertility management, animal traction and livestock fodder systems are thus all key components of both national and international research efforts. Alongside such technological developments, the individualisation of tenure arrangements, settlement schemes and the planning of land use to encourage integration of crop and livestock production are also regularly promoted through extension efforts and development programmes. In discussions of mixed farming it is often assumed that such systems represent part of a natural evolutionary progression towards an ideal state. In this book we argue that such evolutionary concepts – either explicitly or implicitly – lie behind much policy debate and often form the underlying rationale for technology choices. But such a deterministic, linear evolutionary view can be questioned on a number of counts. In particular, it fails to recognise the diverse pathways of change that occur in agricultural systems, and the wide range of technology options that are pursued by farmers and herders. Through a series of detailed case studies from Ethiopia, Mali and Zimbabwe, we have explored the range of pathways of change that have occurred over time and the multiple determinants of these. While mixed farming is certainly one possible outcome, it is only one of many. Historical analysis allowed us to highlight the range of processes and events that have resulted in changes in cropping and livestock systems. Setting an understanding of such changes in a broader livelihood context also enabled us to see how choices made about crops or livestock were conditioned by a range of other factors, many unrelated to farming or livestock keeping. An analysis of social differentiation also highlighted how diverse social actors have varying access to resources, facilitated or constrained by a range of institutions, both formal and informal. Unfortunately, many previous studies of crop- livestock integration have ignored these diverse institutional arrangements. Yet these are seen to be critical, and central to any explanation of the observed diversity of pathways of change. Two important conclusions follow. First, an excessive emphasis on mixed farming as the desired model for the future of small-scale farming in Africa misses a range of other strategies that are very often important for the poor and marginalised. The consequence is that much research and extension effort misses an important potential set of users. A broader appreciation of the wide range of potential pathways of change would, we argue, allow development efforts to be more effectively targeted. Second, technology development, while clearly essential, often misses the social and institutional processes by which diverse social actors again access to resources. Prioritisation of research and extension efforts therefore