Heavy Clouds but No Rain

Heavy Clouds But No Rain Agricultural Growth Theories and Peasant Strategies on The Mossi Plateau, Burkina Faso Mats Hårsmar Department of Rural Development Studies Uppsala Doctoral thesis Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Uppsala 2004 Acta Universitatis Agriculturae Sueciae Agraria 439 ISSN 1401-6249 ISBN 91-576-6488-9 © 2004 Mats Hårsmar, Uppsala Tryck: SLU Service/Repro, Uppsala 2004 Abstract Hårsmar, M. 2003, Heavy Clouds But No Rain – Agricultural Growth Theories and Peasant Strategies on the Mossi Plateau, Burkina Faso. Doctors dissertation. ISSN 1401-6249, ISBN 91-576-6488-9. The thesis discusses different theories about agricultural growth and their applicability in Sub-Saharan Africa. Starting in a debate about lack of expected results from economic reform programmes, the study goes on to describe the situation prevailing on the Mossi Plateau of central Burkina Faso. This area has been selected as a case where agricultural reforms have been implemented properly, and hence positive results from liberalisation in terms of agricultural growth should be expected. In spite of this, what is found is an increasing level of income diversification, combined with the upholding of self-subsistence farming with traditional methods. The factor explaining the prevalence of income diversification is the level of reluctance to change. Underlying this reluctance to change are four indigenous institutions: the upholding of social relationships, the household as the basic production unit, customary land tenure and the upholding of local power structures. These four institutions are also found to influence the level of economic dynamism more broadly. Hence, they determine the scope for agricultural growth. However, some growth is taking place first and foremost in the fields of vegetable gardening, cotton cultivation and cattle breeding. In these areas change is possible because it can take place without challenging the identity of Mossi peasantries. Some members of households are also able to be more dynamic than others since they have roles that are freer. The indigenous institutions that guide Mossi economic behaviour are rules that are constitutive, that is, the upholding of them contribute to create meaning for those who follow them. In this they way, they belong to logic of appropriateness. Based on these findings neoclassic as well as New Institutional Economic theories are criticised, as are other theories that indirectly make the assumption that agricultural growth is hindered or held back by an irrelevant institutional pattern. In order to make sense, theories about agricultural growth in Sub-Saharan Africa need to take indigenous institutions into consideration and give them a proper role. Keywords: economic theory, agricultural growth, income diversification, institutions, economic reform, Mossi peasants, land tenure. Author’s address: Mats Hårsmar, Department of Rural Development Studies, University of Agricultural Sciences, PO Box 7005, 750 07 Uppsala. [email protected] To Amanda and Ebba “I think Joseph was a diversifying farmer. Had he been just a carpenter, then the parables of Jesus would not have been so agrarian…” Maria Vernersson, August 2003 Contents Abstract 3 Contents 5 List of Tables and Graphs 7 Acknowledgements 9 Introduction 11 1. A Cultivating Continent 17 1.1 A Reforming Sector 17 1.1.1 The Context and Timing of Agricultural Liberalisation 20 1.1.2 Food Market Reforms 21 1.1.3 Market Reforms for Export Crops 24 1.1.4 Input Market Reform – The Case of Fertilizer 25 1.1.5 External Markets 26 1.2 Contradictory Descriptions of Agricultural Trends 27 1.2.1 Income Diversification a Spreading Phenomenon 31 1.3 Agriculture in Areas of Uncertainty 33 1.3.1 A Range of Strategies 33 1.4 Agriculture in Burkina Faso 34 1.4.1 The General Setting 34 1.4.2 Agricultural Policy 40 1.4.3 The Larger Reform Setting 41 1.5 Objective of The Study 47 2. Contesting Growth Theories 49 2.1 Constraint by Lack of Markets 49 2.1.1 The Character of Contracts 52 2.1.2 Price and Technical Change 55 2.1.3 Why Do Peasants Diversify? 59 2.2 Constraint By Indigenous Institutions 62 2.2.1 Fused Power at Local Level 64 2.2.2 Access Through Relations 66 2.2.3 Diversification as Cultural Characteristic 68 2.2.4 The Un-captured Peasant 71 2.2.5 Contractual Forms 72 2.2.6 Indigenous Institutions and Technical Change 72 2.2.7 An Alternative Approach to Income Diversification 74 2.3 Structuring The Agricultural Growth Debate 76 2.3.1 How to Understand Income Diversification 79 2.3.2 Overlapping Analytical Fields 80 3. Conceptual Framework and Methodology 83 3.1 Ontology and Epistemology 83 3.2 Methodology 87 3.2.1 Operationalisation 87 3.2.2 Extensive Studies 89 3.2.3 Few Cases And Causal Inferences 89 3.2.4 Selection of Cases 92 3.2.5 Criteria Applied 94 3.2.6 Independent Variables 95 3.3 Field Methods 101 3.4 Analysis of Gathered Material 101 4. Finding Causal Factors 103 4.1 Income Diversification in Burkina Faso 103 4.2 Case Study Villages 111 4.3 Analysis of Causes 114 4.3.1 Comparing With Other Cases 118 4.4 Conclusion 125 5. Tracing Underlying Mechanisms 127 5.1 Mossi Attitudes Towards Cultivation Patterns 127 5.2 Further Discussion on Diversification 131 5.3 Hindering Institutions 133 5.3.1 The Centrality of Relations 134 5.3.2 The Household as Unit of Production 138 5.3.3. Customary Land Tenure 142 5.3.4 Hierarchical Structures of Village Power 150 5.4 To Explain Income Diversification 159 6. The Dynamic Areas 163 6.1 Diversification and Economic Dynamism 163 6.2 Cotton Cultivation 165 6.2.1 Cotton Cultivation on the Mossi Plateau 171 6.3 Cattle Breeding 176 6.3.1 Cattle Breeding on the Mossi Plateau 179 6.3.2 Discussion 183 6.4 Growing of Vegetables 185 6.4.1 Vegetables on the Mossi Plateau 187 6.4.2 Discussion of Critical Areas 192 6.4.3 Increased Market Access Changes The Picture 196 6.5 Concluding Remarks 197 7. Differences in Dynamics 199 7.1 Explaining Dynamic Areas 199 7.2 Explaining Dynamic Groups 201 7.3 Describing Technical Change 203 7.3.1 Technical Change on the Mossi Plateau 209 7.4 Concluding Remarks 210 8. Explaining Agricultural Growth 213 8.1 Analysis of Income Diversification 213 8.2 Analysis of Technical Change 214 8.3 Analysis of Contractual Forms 216 8.3.1 Explaining The Non-standard 221 8.4 Analysis of Theories about Agricultural Growth 223 8.4.1 Refutation of Theories 225 8.5 The Scope for Agency 231 8.6 Concluding Remarks 236 References 241 List of Tables and Graphs Graph 1.1 Fertilizer Use per Rural Inhabitant in Sub-Saharan Africa 25 Map 1.1 Agroecological Zones in Burkina Faso 35 Graph 1.2 Rainfall in Four Cities 36 Graph 1.3 Rain Levels on The Mossi Plateau 37 Table 1.1 Evolution in Key Agricultural Sectors 43 Table 1.2 Cereals Production in Burkina Faso 43 Diagram 2.1 Induced Innovation 57 Table 2.1 Analytical Framework for Agricultural Growth 77 Table 2.2 Analytical Framework for Income Diversification 80 Diagram 3.1 The Multiple Meaning of Truth 85 Table 4.1 Farm Household Income Diversification in Comparison 106 Table 4.2 Level of Income Diversification 1994 107 Table 4.3 Level of Income Diversification 1998 107 Table 4.4 Income Shares from Different Economic Activities 108 Table 4.5 Total Household Expenditures 110 Map 4.1 The Mossi Plateau in Burkina Faso and Case Study Villages 112 Table 4.6 Causes of Income Diversification 115 Table 4.7 Causes of Diversification Outside the Mossi Plateau 119 Table 4.8 Zaare Households Analysed with Basket Weaving Disregarded 124 Diagram 5.1 Institutional Web in the Mossi Peasant Society 159 Table 6.1 Extracts from Gandaogo 163 Table 6.2 Extracts from Zambanga 163 Table 6.3 Extracts from Rapougouna 163 Table 6.4 Extracts from Bango 163 Graph 6.1 Total Cotton Production in Burkina Faso 166 Graph 6.2 Cotton Yield per Hectare 166 Graph 6.3 Cotton Production in Different Regions of Burkina Faso 167 Graph 6.4 Cotton Yield per Hectare in Burkina Faso During The 1990s 169 Graph 6.5 Cotton Production in Burkina Faso During the 1990s 170 Table 6.5 Development of Cotton Growing in Gandaogo 172 Diagram 6.1 Causes of Cotton Cultivation 174 Map 6.1 Geographical Distribution of Cattle Kept in Burkina Faso 177 Graph 6.6 Number of Cattle Sold in Burkina Faso 177 Graph 6.7 Number of Animals Kept by Burkinabé Households 178 Table 6.6 Exports of Cattle from Burkina Faso 178 Table 6.7 Production of Vegetables and Fruit 187 Graph 7.1 Total Fertilizer Use in Burkina Faso 205 Graph 7.2 Output of Cereals per Area, Burkina Faso Aggregate 206 Graph 7.3 Agricultural Area Cultivated per Agricultural Population 207 Graph 7.4 Output per Agricultural Population 208 Table 7.1 Relationship Between Land and Fertilizer 209 Table 8.1 Analysis of Non-standard Contractual Forms 221 Acknowledgements Writing a PhD thesis is a challenging endeavour. At the outset, it seems to be a process where the opportunities to relate and collaborate with others are infinite. Along the way, the number of people involved decreases, and in the end it is all too obvious that no one other than oneself is there to carry the full responsibility. The final phases of analysing and writing up are especially solitary in character. In fact, there are few positive things to say about these later stages of the process.

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