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AGRICULTURAL ADMINISTRATION (RESEARCH AND EXTENSION) NETWORI

NETWORK PAPER 42 ISSN 0952-2468

%mum. July 1993

ROLES FOR FARMERS' KNOWLEDGE IN

Two Papers by:

C R Riches, L J Shamon, J W M Logan and D C Munthali

and

Simon Batterbury Charles Riches, Louise Shaxson and J W M Logan are weed scientist, agricultural economist and entomologist respectively at the Natural Resources Institute, and can be contacted at:

Natural Resources Institute, Central Avenue, Chatham Maritime, Kent ME4 4TB, UK

D C Munthali is Director of the Soil Pests Project at the University of Malawi, and can be contacted at:

Soil Pests Project, Chancellor College, University of Malawi, PO Box 280, Zomba, Malawi

Simon Batterbury worked with Cellule Recherche-Developpement,PATECORE (GTZ), BP 271, Kongoussi, Barn, Burkina Faso. He can currently be contacted at: West London Institute of Higher Education, Geography Department, Gordon House, 300 St Margaret's Road, Twickenham, Middlesex TW1 1PT

Network Personnel:

Coordinator: Anthony Bebbington Assistant Coordinator: John Farrington Secretary: Alison Saxby

This Network is sponsored by:

The Overseas Development Administration (ODA) 94 Victoria Street, London SW1E 5JL

The opinions expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect those of ODA.

Photocopies of all or part of this publication may be made providing that due acknowledgement is made. Requests for large-scale reproduction of network material should be directed to ODI as copyright holders. The Network Coordinator would appreciate receiving details of any use of this material in training, research or programme design, implementation or evaluation. CONTENTS

Page

42a. Insect and Parasitic Weed Problems in Southern Malawi and the Use of Farmer Knowledge in the Design of Control Measures by C R Riches, L J Shaxson, J IV M Logan and D C Munthali

ABSTRACT 1

INTRODUCTION 1

INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE PESTS 3

Striga asiatica: witchweed 3 Cylas puncticollis Boheman: the sweet potato weevil 4 Ophiomyia spp.: the beanfly 4

COLLECTING INFORMATION: HOW FARMER PERCEPTIONS OF PESTS CAN COMPLEMENT FIELD DATA 5

A FRAMEWORK FOR EXAMINING FARMER KNOWLEDGE 5

FARMER KNOWLEDGE OF PEST BIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY 7

Farmer knowledge of biology 7 Farmer knowledge of the biology of the sweet potato weevil 11 Farmer knowledge of the biology of the beanfly 11

PLANNING A PROGRAMME OF ADAPTIVE RESEARCH: THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF INDIGENOUS TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE 12

A programme for Striga control 12 Programmes for insect control 13 Page

EMPOWERMENT THROUGH INFORMATION 14

REFERENCES 15

Figure 1. Four Classes of Farmer Knowledge 6

42b. Planners or Performers? Indigenous Dryland Farmers in Northern Burkina Faso by Simon Batterbury

ABSTRACT 18

A BACKDROP TO INDIGENOUS AGRICULTURAL INNOVATION: 19 INSTITUTIONAL ACTIVITY IN THE CENTRAL PLATEAU

THE CONSTRUCTION AND MANAGEMENT OF DRYLAND FARMING SYSTEMS 20

INDIVIDUALITY, DESIGN CHOICE AND LEARNING IN MOSSI COMMUNITIES 92

PLANNED PERFORMANCES AND FARMER STATUS 24

CONCLUSIONS - RECOGNISING MULTIPLE SOURCES OF CHANGE IN ITK 26 '

REFERENCES 29 INSECT AND PARASITIC WEED PROBLEMS IN SOUTHERN MALAWI AND THE USE OF FARMER KNOWLEDGE IN THE DESIGN OF CONTROL MEASURES'

C R Riches, L J Shaxson, J W M Logan and D C Munthali

ABSTRACT

Researchers worked with a group of farmers in Southern Malawi to find out what farmers know about witchweed (Striga asiatica), the sweet potato weevil (Cylas puncticollis) and the beanfly (Ophiomyia spp.) and how this affects the ways in which a control programme could be implemented. Although some relationships between pest problems and other factors such as soil fertility were generally well recognised by the farming community, the farmers contacted by this project lacked some of the detailed biological and ecological knowledge that is necessary for an understanding of why, certain control practices are necessary. These gaps in their understanding have a direct bearing on farmers' current approaches to control. The authors conclude that providing farmers with this information is essential if the control technologies being developed are to be sustainable.

INTRODUCTION

There is an increasing awareness of the contribution of indigenous technical knowledge to agricultural research. Farmers' understanding of their environment and their agricultural practices have been documented since (for example) the colonial era in Africa (see Richards, 1985, chapter 1). However, its potential contribution was not brought into the mainstream of development thinking until

The Soil Pests Project at the University of Malawi is funded by the Overseas Development Administration through the Natural Resources and Environment Departinent's support to the Integrated Pest Management programme at NRI. However, opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of NRI, nor of ODA. The authors would like to thank Mr R L Satifula for his contribution to gathering information on farmer knowledge. 1 the rise of the "farmer first" movement that began with Richards, Rhoades and Chambers in the mid-1980s.

Farmers may well, be more familiar with various aspects of the farming environment than the "experts" called in to assist them. Current literature is full of descriptions of farmers' intricate knowledge of different aspects of agricultural production. Farmers in Malawi intercrop in a multitude of patterns according to the particular micro-environment; growing "certain beans on old anthills, or certain crops cross-hatched with others, or in patches where the soil was of different quality" (Peters et a/., p.28). They have a detailed knowledge of the uses of indigenous for food and medicine (see Williamson, 1955, amongst others) and there is a growing number of reports of how farmers are continuously experimenting and improving their knowledge of the system in which they operate (see Chambers et al.).

Chambers (1991) has observed that farmers know some things that scientists do not know while scientists know some things that farmers do not. To date, documentation of farmer knowledge has often been uncritical in that it tends to concentrate on aspects of agriculture about which farmers appear to know more than researchers. Less work has been done on what farmers do not know about particular problems. Bentley (1989) points out that "what farmers don't know can't help them": we must critically examine the gaps in knowledge of both farmers and scientists, to work out how they affect the development of sustainable agricultural technologies.

This paper draws on the experience of the authors in working with the Soil Pests Project, based at Chancellor College at the University of Malawi. Three years of data collection, by both social and natural scientists, has given useful insights into how farmers' knowledge of the major pest problems can complement that of research scientists. However, we have found that for various reasons, farmers are unaware of some of the important biological and ecological features of the three key pests. These gaps in their understanding directly relate to the approaches they have used to date to control these pests.

Witchweed, beanfly and the sweet potato weevil are all recognised by farmers in Southern Malawi to be major causes of yield loss. Witchweed infestation is closely associated with population pressure. Farmers in affected areas have few resources to commit to crop production and protection. It is therefore imperative that the design of control measures for this and any other crop "pest" is based on a clear understanding of farmer constraints and their knowledge of the biology of the problem. Where innovative control measures are developed, parallel research should be carried out to determine the additional knowledge farmers will need to understand how these work. Our aim is to develop an adaptive research programme for pest control and to identify what farmers need to be taught if they are to appreciate the rationale of, and hence be likely to adopt, appropriate control measures. We believe that without this step, sustained adoption of extension recommendations is unlikely.

INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE PESTS

Striga asiatica: witchweed

Parasitic weeds in the genera Alectra and Striga (Scrophulariaceae) are now widespread constraints to cereal and grain legume production in much of Africa. According to Mboob (1989), Striga species are distributed throughout 40% of the arable land in sub-Saharan regions. On the basis of an analysis of recent surveys and field trials in a number of countries Sauerborn (1991) concluded that "Striga represents, at this time, the largest single biological constraint for the food production in Africa". Due to the difficulty of preparing Striga-free plots for valid comparisons there are few reliable estimates of crop loss due to parasitic weeds although Parker (1991) concludes that Striga species can cause complete crop failure and that losses of 30-50% are common under heavy infestations, with losses averaging 5-15%. It is not unusual for farmers in southern Africa to abandon severely infested land or to adopt a different cropping pattern to overcome the problem (Riches et al., 1986).

Increased severity of Striga is generally associated with continuous cropping which has replaced shifting cultivation systems as a consequence of population pressure in many regions where these parasites are endemic (Parker 1991). This is due in part to the association of Striga infestation with low fertility. Little technological change from so-called "traditional" farming methods has occurred in parallel to the change to continuous cultivation. Crops are nutrient deficient in many situations with little manure or fertiliser being added to fields. In southern Malawi the gradual change from the system of shifting cultivation with fallow periods of 15-20 years, which was common at the turn of the century, to the continuous cereal cultivation seen today has provided conditions which elsewhere have been conducive to the build-up of severe parasitic weed infestations.

In Malawi, recommended practices are hand pulling and burning of parasite stems, the use of high yielding varieties and the application of adequate amounts

3 of fertiliser or animal manure. Indeed, the value of increased soil fertility was demonstrated convincingly by the Ministry of Agriculture during the mid 1970s (Kabambe, 1901).

Cylas puncticollis Boheman: the sweet potato weevil

Sweet potato weevils of the genus Cylas are the major insect pest of sweet potatoes in most regions where this crop is grown (Sutherland, 1986; Jansson and Raman, 1991). The adult, a small black beetle, causes minor damage by feeding on the foliage and vines. They lay their eggs in the subterranean tubers which they reach through cracks in the soil. The economic damage is done by the larvae, small white grubs, which feed on the tubers. In some cases, they cause the flesh of the tuber to develop an unpleasant taste so that the whole tuber is inedible; in others, the affected part can be cut out and the rest eaten. Damage by the larvae also encourages fungal attack on the tissue. Development from egg to adult takes 3-4 weeks, so weevil populations can build up rapidly in the growing season. Damage continues after harvest and weevils from infested potatoes can infest others in the store. The weevils survive from one season to the next on crop residues, volunteer plants and weeds belonging to the genus Ipomoea. All farmers interviewed by the Soil Pests Project in southern Malawi who grew the crop reported losses each year, some of which were as high as 50% of their tubers. They grow about 10 different varieties of sweet potato for sale or consumption, some for both. All seem to be equally affected by the weevil.

Ophiomyia spp.: the beanfly

Beanfly are important pests of beans in many parts of Malawi. The small flies lay their eggs on the petioles and the larvae, when hatched, make their way down through the stem to pupate in the collar (the junction between the stem and root). Damage due to the tunnelling and to swelling and cracking of the stem can be sufficient to kill young plants and severely debilitate older plants. Attacked plants frequently also suffer from fungal attack by Sclerotium rolfsii which possibly gain entry to the through the beanfly-damaged tissues. Although blossom drop due to heavy rains is one factor influencing farmers' decision not to plant a first bean crop, the main problem is potential loss due to beanfly: fields may be affected to such an extent that farmers need to replant comi)letely. Beanfly attack is particularly high at the start of the rains and, in

4 parts of the Katuli area, farmers have given up planting beans in the first rainy season and some only grow beans in winter on the residual moisture.

COLLECTING INFORMATION: HOW FARMER PERCEPTIONS OF PESTS CAN COMPLEMENT FIELD DATA

From the outset, the Soil Pests project took the view that information needed to be collected both from the farmers and from their fields, in order to find out where farmers' and scientists' knowledge of the pest problems was complementary and where it diverged. Detailed crop monitoring was undertaken in eight Extension Planning Areas (EPAs), crops were examined along major routes and discussions held with farmers at various locations to ascertain the extent of the problem in a particular area. Information on farmer perceptions of pest problems was initially collected using questionnaire surveys in which they were asked to list, unprompted, the pests they considered to cause the greatest problems in their fields. Subsequently, researchers talked to farmers to find out their perceptions of the causes and severity of pest damage and their knowledge of control measures. In-depth discussions on these issues were also held with farmers whose fields were particularly badly infested. This aspect of the work was expanded during the 1992/3 season through contact with six farmers in Kwisimba village near Ngapani in Mangochi district.

A FRAMEWORK FOR EXAMINING FARMER KNOWLEDGE

Jeff Bentley, an anthropologist working in Honduras, has spent the past five years studying the interface between farmer and scientist knowledge about pest control. He has developed a hypothesis that farmer knowledge can be roughly divided into four clhsses depending on the perceived economic importance of the problem and the ease with which farmers can observe it (Bentley, 1992). This framework has proved very useful in helping to orient and direct a programme of adaptive research into technologies that will be appropriate for smallholder farmers. in the figure, the upper right hand cell contains important and easily observed topics such as weeds and the growth stages of plants. These are well understood by farmers who have developed a good body of information about them which in some cases exceeds that of natural scientists. The upper left- hand cell contains problems which are easily observed but not perceived to be economically important such as the adults of the sweet potato weevil and

5 spiders. The lower right hand cell contains topics that are readily observed but not well understood, such as plant diseases and insect reproduction. The lower left hand cell contains topics that are difficult for farmers to observe and that they do not consider to be important: nematodes, parasitic wasps and insect viruses would fall into this category.

Figure 1. FOUR CLASSES OF FARMER KNOWLEDGE

PERCEIVED IMPORTANCE

Mud dauber wasps Bees Earwigs Weeds Spiders Farm tools Insect predation Plant growth stages

Cylas adults Termites HSVa Effect of Striga Cylas larvae dO

Parasitic wasps Plant diseases Nematodes Lepidoptera reproduction

NOL1VAII1S110 Beadly damage Striga parasitism Cylas reproduction

After Bentley, 1991.

6 FARMER KNOWLEDGE OF PEST BIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY

In discussions with farmers, we asked general questions about their knowledge of the three pests: Striga, sweet potato weevil and beanfly. We asked how long had Striga been in their fields, why it affects plants as it does, what control methods did they know of and how effective did they consider these to be. In sweet potato fields, we asked whether the weevil was worse in wet or dry years, whether the damage caused was related to soil type, whether the black beetles crawling around on the sweet potato leaves were damaging in any way and where the larvae came from. For beanfly we concentrated on asking farmers what the small black specks were at the base of the plant, where they came from and whether they could be controlled. It became clear that there was a pattern to the farmers' knowledge. For ease of analysis and as a basis for further discussion with farmers, we summarised the key aspects of the biology and ecology of the three pests in the underlined headings and compare them here with the farmers' understanding of the problems.

Farmer knowledge of Striga biology

Striga asiatica is conspicuous and its effect is known to be economically important. Its bright red flowers are visible even from the side of the road, and farmers know that it has a significant effect on the maize crop. Vernacular terms for Striga asiatica reflect the nature of damage to the host crop. "Chikungulu" (Chiyao) literally means "something evil" and "kaufiti" (Chichewa) refers to a witch or a wizard. It is similar to the English term "witchweed" which describes the way in which infested plants appear stunted and water stressed. We have found that farmers are well aware that the symptoms of attack and hence damage to the crop first occur well before Striga emerges above ground. Farmers in both Chingale and Katuli (two areas where the project was working) have been able to point out and differentiate between maize plants which are stunted due to whitegrub attack and those which are supporting subterranean Striga before the causal organism is visible.

Striga is parasitic on the roots of the host plant

None of the farmers we interviewed was aware of this basic aspect of the life cycle of Striga: that it is parasitic on the roots of the host plant. They ate clear that witchweed is only found close to maize or stems and therefore accept that this is a crop-specific problem. The particular clumping of parasite stems at the base of the host plant is thought to be a result of weeding. In the

7 Thuchila area, termite attack is often severe and farmers believe that the crop row should not be disturbed during the second weeding or it will result in an increase in termite attack. Any Striga which is developing and most of which has not emerged at this point of the season (approximately six weeks after planting), will therefore be partially removed by hoeing between, but not in, the crop rows. In Katuli EPA maize is grown under the "kaselera" cultivation system. The crop is planted on ridges made the previous season for bean production, then soil is moved to form new ridges between the maize rows at two to three weeks after planting as a termite control measure. Subsequently these ridges are built up as the maize matures. This final tillage operation buries emerged Striga stems, other than those at the base of the maize plants.

Nutrients and metabolite are diverted from the host to the parasite, so stunting the host and adversely affecting yield.

Although farmers do not realise that witchweed grows directly on host roots, they do recognise that water and nutrient stressed maize plants are found in areas of the field where the parasite is also seen. This is generally attributed to direct competition although one farmer did suggest that Striga releases poisonous substances (c.f. toxins) into the soil which affect maize growth. Farmers recognise that continuous cultivation leads to a decline in soil fertility and it is also widely accepted that infestations increase in severity when fields are cultivated continuously for many years. Perhaps the key aspect of farmer knowledge about Striga is the definite association between the loss of fertility in general and resulting increases in infestation levels. More than 50% of sites with visually severe infestations in Chingale have been cultivated for at least 20 years without fallowing, while in Katuli and Matapwata, more than 90% of farmers questioned who reported a Striga problem have been cultivating the same site for at least 30 years.

Striga number, time of emergence and the effect on the host may be reduced by adequate manuring and especially the application of nitrogen in the seedbed.

Of 56 farmers who were asked via questionnaire about fertiliser application, only 34 expressed an opinion and of these 23 thought that fertiliser had no effect on the amount of Striga seen in their fields. Only three of the others considered fertiliser to have a "strong effect" in overcoming the parasite. In subsequent discussions with individual farmers, some maintained that while Striga may not be controlled by fertiliser, maize yields are better at infested sites when it is applied. When used at all in Malawi, fertiliser is rarely applied in the seed bed.

8 Farmers prefer to see the maize established before committing expensive fertiliser to the crop and usually practice a split application. The first fertiliser is applied when the crop is six to eight inches high. This is probably too late to reduce parasite .germination and attachment, processes through which the nitrogen effect on Striga appears to act(Chechin and Press, 1993). Top dressing on the other hand can be beneficial and may help to maintain yield under infested conditions. The major benefit of fertiliser application is seen when nitrogen is present in the seed bed (Kabambe, 1991). Other than goats, few livestock are kept by the majority of farmers in the areas studied, so little manure is available. Farmers near Ngapani who have tried applying manure to badly infested portions of land complain that this introduces another problem weed, Oxygonum sinuatum (Meisn.) Dammer.

Each parasite plant produces tens of thousands of dust-like seeds which blow easily on a slight breeze and which may remain viable in the soil for many (10-20?) years. Parasite seed production continues after the maize crop matures.

We have not found any farmers who are able to recognise Striga seed or who can show where on the plant it develops. Nor do they appreciate the vast quantity of seed produced and the ease with which it is dispersed. An understanding of these issues and the time of the season when seed is shed would be fundamental to any attempt to introduce Striga control by hand-pulling in an effort to reduce the parasite seed bank. Only 20 farmers said that they used a Striga control method: for the majority this involved "weeding". Only five mentioned pulling up the parasite before it flowers which has been an extension recommendation for many years. Interestingly, in Katuli, where we have seen infestation levels worse than in other areas, most farmers replied that they undertake no control at all. In subsequent discussions it became clear that little systematic attempt is made to remove Striga from the field. Burying of parasite stems when making ridges between rows of maturing maize under the "kaselera" system is believed to provide some control. By this stage of the season, however, a proportion of Striga has already set seed and clumps of parasite are left to produce seed at the base of maize plants in soil not disturbed during the ridging operation. We have seen situations where farmers have pulled up Striga stems only to leave them between crop rows, allowing the green seed capsules to dry off so that viable seed is subsequently shed. This probably accounts for farmer disillusionment with hand pulling. Many farmers claim to have tried the practice in the past without seeing any benefit. This would be expected where a proportion of the parasite plants are allowed to return seed to the soil and where hand-pulling is not carried out for a number

9 of seasons to ensure that the seed bank is depleted. Anecdotal evidence from South Africa suggests that S. asiatica seed remains viable for up to 20 years in the soil; this is not generally appreciated by smallholders in southern Malawi. One farmer who hqs recently started to cultivate land near Ngapani which had been fallow for 25 years encountered a severe infestation of witchweed after only two seasons.

Striga seeds only germinate when stimulated to do so by exudates from the roots of host and certain non-host plants.

Some crop species, including cowpea and sunflower, produce S. asiatica germination stimulant but are not parasitised. This idea has been developed by researchers in an number of countries as the concept of trap-cropping, where any parasite seedling developing in the root zone of a trap crop dies. This aspect of Striga biology is unknown to the smallholder farming community. No strong view emerged from responses to the questionnaire as to whether Striga is more common in sole or intercropped maize: this is somewhat surprising given the prevalence of cowpea and groundnut intercrops at Chingale and Katuli respectively. Only three of 28 respondents thought that the previous crop may affect subsequent Striga levels. One smallholder near Ngapani showed us an infested maize crop sown with a sparse intercrop of velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens). He had heard locally that this should reduce the parasite population by the production of a Striga toxin from its roots. He had not seen any effect, probably because the velvet bean population was too sparse to produce a noticeable response, and planned to abandon the field the following season.

In collections of crop varieties there tends to be variability in susceptibility to or tolerance of parasite attack.

Two-thirds of the farmers questioned thought that witchweed affects all maize varieties in the "same way". When asked to specify which cultivars are most or least affected by the parasite, there was an even split between "local" and hybrid cultivars being mentioned in each category. Regional variation is particularly interesting, with farmers in Katuli tending to pick out "local" maize as being least affected while in Chingale and Matapwata the hybrids are said to be least affected. If replies were based on the amounts of Striga seen in the field, this could indicated differences in susceptibility between local maize landraces.

10 Farmer knowledge of the biology of the sweet potato weevil

The small black beetles on the foliage are related to the white grubs which, infest the tubers.

None of the farmers we spoke to realised that the small black beetles crawling around on the foliage were the adults of what they considered to be the real pests - the small white grubs. They knew that as defoliators, the beetles did very little damage and since they did not perceive the adults to be economically important, they did very little to control them. Some farmers had noticed the Cylas pupae, but did not know where they came from.

The adult Cylas are responsible for infecting the tubers

Because the farmers did not understand the principles of insect reproduction, they were unaware of the fact that Cylas adults crawl down the cracks in the sweet potato ridges to lay their eggs on the tubers, and that tamping down the soil when the tubers set may help to control the problem. Although the larvae are conspicuous and economically important to the farmers, the cause of the problem - the fact that beetles lay eggs which develop into the larvae - was unknown and thus farmers did not realise that the adult weevils are, in fact, economically important.

Farmer knowledge of the biology of the beanfly

The swellings at the base of the plants are caused by the pupae of the beanfly, and open the way for opportunistic infection by fungal diseases.

Farmers we spoke to are unaware that the swellings are caused by pupae, which are laid by the tiny flies that they see around their bean plants in the morning. Some have made a connection with the Alcidodes beetle (which is much larger and easy to see) and think that the little black specks are its eggs. Others considered the swollen, cracked stems to be due to disease rather than insect attack. The warm, moist conditions that prevail at the start of the rainy season encourage infection by Sclerotiuni rolfsii, and Fusarium spp. are frequently found on bean plants that have been affected by the beanfly. In the first round of data collection, not one farmer mentioned beanfly damage at all, yet the natural scientists recorded instances of whole fields being devastated by it; fields which would need to be completely replanted. This may have been due to the

11 way in which the questions were asked: people tend to think more of insects and weeds than of diseases when asked to list "pests".

PLANNING A PROGRAMME OF ADAPTIVE RESEARCH: THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF INDIGENOUS TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE

How, then, can our understanding of farmer knowledge of the three pests be used to plan appropriate control measures which are likely to be adopted? We have shown that farmers do not have some of the basic knowledge that is vital if they are to understand why control is possible and how the measures will work. We have also shown that in some cases farmers have been able to show scientists something new; we know (for example) of no natural scientist who can distinguish between maize attacked by whitegrub and by pre-emergence Striga. We have also shown that while farmers constantly experiment, they often do so with imperfect information. They can become disillusioned and frustrated when the control measures which they have reasoned through and which fit into what they currently know, do not work.

It is not enough, however, to simply document these facts and file them for future reference; they must be used to help direct RandD programmes and to ensure that extension messages take account of them. We close the paper considering how this might occur in research on Striga and insect control, and the implications this has for extension.

A programme for Striga control

Intercropping of a legume in maize is a common practice in southern Malawi. Preliminary findings from trials in Mali in infested millet indicate that S. hermonthica (Del.) Benth. development can be suppressed by a cowpea cover crop (M. Webb, pers. comm.). S. asiatica appears serious in Malawi, where maize, is intercropped with groundnut, but further discussion is needed with farmers to determine if any effect on the parasite in the subsequent maize crop is seen when an adequate population of groundnuts is planted. Indeterminate cowpeas produce ground cover quickly and may provide more effective suppression of the Striga. They are not grown widely in the area where we found Striga infestations to be highest: the reasons for this should be determined, and the potential for promoting cowpea cultivation assessed in parallel with field trials of maize-cowpea intercrops.

12 Farmers clearly have little understanding of the technical rationale underlying hand-pulling recommendations. This practice would be extremely labour- intensive where complete fields are infested. However, in many instances, Striga occurs in patches across a field, making hand pulling more feasible. If fanners are going to adopt this practice, extension staff will need to teach them about parasite seed size, number, longevity and when it is shed. Without this knowledge, farmers cannot be expected to pursue Striga removal with any vigour or to continue the practice for enough seasons to make an impact.

Further information needs to be collected on farmer assessments of the susceptibility of available maize varieties. The commonly grown hybrids all appear, from general observation, to be susceptible and more work needs to be done on how farmers assess tolerance or susceptibility to the parasite. It would also be useful to screen available material for variation in susceptibility and in particular to assess local maize landraces.

Programmes for insect control

Farmers lack some of the basic knowledge about insect reproduction that would enable them to understand the principles behind the development of control measures. Knowing, for example, the relationship between the adult sweet potato weevil (which is not perceived to be economically important) and the larva (which is) and understanding how to control the adult would be an important step in improving the relationship between researchers and farmers, who would then be able to experiment for themselves.

The sweet potato weevil is, at present, a somewhat overlooked pest. Although farmers appreciate the damage done by this pest, they have no indigenous methods for its cohtrol. This can, in part, be put down to their lack of knowledge of the biology of the pest. The link between the larva and the adult and the knowledge that the adult can only lay eggs on exposed sweet potatoes (either on the surface or via cracks in the soil) may help them to develop practical and locally appropriate measures. Cylas populations have been monitored by luring males to sticky traps baited with live females. Several traps have been given to fanners in southern Malawi for technical trials, and they have been operated successfully by the farmers for over a year. Although the traps were only intended to monitor weevil populations, the farmers say that they have resulted in a reduction in weevil damage in the fields where they are used. It has been proposed that farmers could make traps for use as a control measure. In parallel to technical tests of such traps it will be necessary to

13 undertake complementary work on farmers' understanding of the concept of pheromones, the principle on which these traps are based. Researchers also need to work with farmers to see if it is possible to use any locally available sticky substances to trap lured males.

Increased awareness by farmers of the association of Cylas grubs in tubers to crawling adults on foliage would provide a rationale for testing "tamping down" of soil cracks on ridges or care over the selection of planting material. Farmers may not realise that the planting material they use could contain eggs, that the volunteer plants act as a source of infection or that the weevils overwinter in certain weeds.

Two methods of control have been suggested for the beanfly: seed dressing and resistant varieties. A cheap seed dressing, which farmers could apply to their own 'saved' seed could, if shown to be effective, be adopted so long as farmers are aware that bean seedlings die due to a combination of beanfly damage and damping off. However resistant varieties, provided they are acceptable in terms of taste and yield, may be easier to introduce and more sustainable than new chemicals.

EMPOWERMENT THROUGH INFORMATION

In general, extension messages need to explain far more about whv and how a control measure has been developed. Farmers are keen to learn if they see that doing so will improve their understanding and will help them develop and adapt technologies to their own particular circumstances. The Soil Pests Project has recently drawn up simple posters showing the lifecycles of the three pests, to explain the trials that are being run in farmers fields2. Initial feedback from farmers has been that the diagrams are too simple, and that there should be more explanation of, for example, the precise height of the maize when the Striga sets its seed. Farmers are reluctant to tamp down the cracks in the sweet potato ridges; large cracks are a source of pride since they indicate a bumper harvest, and the time of year when tamping should be done conflicts with other farming activities. However, we feel that by finding out what farmers do and do not know and by giving them the necessary information, we at least offer them the choice of control technologies.

2 It was pointed out that this is similar to the approach adopted by primary health care programmes as they try to explain the reasons behind the problems caused by human disease vectors. 14 Using this sort of information to help direct a programme of technology development and dissemination demands the sort of interdisciplinarity that has not really developed in programmes of adaptive research. As "ethnoscience" becomes more accepted, social scientists have tended to emphasise what farmers do know. However they have not, in general, looked critically at what farmers do not know and at how these gaps in farmers' knowledge of the problems hinder their ability to experiment and to understand the rationale behind control measures. Natural scientists, on the other hand, have tended to concentrate on what farmers do not know and have given little credence to social science publications which document farmer knowledge but offer few recommendations on how it can be used.

There has been much discussion about "empowering" farmers in order to help them take control of their own lives. Providing them with the necessary information is part of this process. Although work on ITK has shown that under certain circumstances farmers know more than scientists, we must not let this blind us to the fact that in other situations they do not have some of the vital information that would help them understand the rationale behind the development of agricultural technologies. As Bentley points out, we need to confront honestly the limitations as well as the strengths of ITK in order to enable social and natural scientists to interact with each other and with the farmers for whom, in the end, we are working.

REFERENCES

Bentley, J.W.(1989) "What farmers don't know can't help them: the strengths and weaknesses of indigenous technical knowledge in Honduras". Agriculture and Human Values, 6(3):25-31.

Bentley, J.W. (1992) "The epistemology of plant protection: Honduran campesino knowledge of pests and natural enemies" In Gibson and Sweetmore (eds), pp. 107-118.

Chambers, R. (1991) "Socio-economic aspects" Keynote address read at the CTA/NRI Seminar: Crop Protection for Resource-Poor Farmers; Isle of Thorns, University of Sussex, UK, 4-8 November 1991.

Chambers, R., A. Pacey and L.A. Thrupp (1989) Farmer First: fanner innovation and agricultural research. London: Intermediate Technology Publications.

15 Chechin, I. and M.C. Press (1993) "Nitrogen relations of the sorghum-Striga hermonthica host-parasite association; germination, attachment and early growth. New Phytologi§t, in press.

Gibson, R.W. and A. Sweetmore (eds)(1992) Proceedings of a Seminar on Crop Protection for Resource-Poor Farmers. vi+168 pp. Natural Resources Institute and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation.

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Jansson, R.K., L.J. Mason and R.R. Heath (1991) "Use of sex pheromones for monitoring and managing Cylasformicarius. in Jansson, R.K. and K.V. Raman (eds): Sweet potato management: a global perspective. Boulder, San Francisco and Oxford. Oxford and IBH Publishing Co Pv Ltd

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16 Riches, C.R., W.A.J. de Milliano, A.T. Obilana and L.R. House. (1986) "Witchweeds (Striga sp.) of sorghum and pearl millet in the SADCC region - Distribution and control." Proceedings of 3rd SADCC/ICRISAT Sorghum Millet Improvement Project Regional Workshop. Lusaka, Zambia. ICRISAT, Bulawayo.

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17 PLANNERS OR PERFORMERS? INDIGENOUS DRYLAND FARMERS IN NORTHERN BURKINA FASO

Simon Batterburyl

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to suggest how we might think of indigenous agriculture in West Africa as a set of planned and indeed diverse practices that serve a range of ends that are both social and agricultural. By highlighting how farmers in the Central Plateau region of Burkina Faso plan their strategies the paper challenges elements of Richards' (1989) conception of "agriculture as performance." It also challenges static conceptions of indigenous agriculture by showing that the farmer as "planner" works with knowledge from multiple sources. In recent years these multiple sources have come to include the range of institutions working for agricultural development in the Central Plateau. The paper discusses how technologies and ideas from these institutions have been incorporated in different ways by different farmers for different reasons into their agricultural planning and practice in the region. More generally the paper explores the implications of the new availability of project assistance for locally initiated and managed agricultural change.

The paper begins with a brief overview of this institutional activity. It then goes on to present the image of dryland management in Burkina Faso as a strategy planned by farmers; suggesting differences and continuities between this case and indigenous agricultural strategies elsewhere in West Africa. The emphasis on how farmers plan and reflect on this resource management, and on how they incorporate information from multiple sources leads to concluding recommendations for the form that should be taken by the relationship between projects and farmers. The argument is based on eighteen months of fieldwork conductecl during 1992 and 1993 in remote Mossi farming communities in the northern Barn Province of Burkina Faso.

I The support of an SSRC/ACLS Fellowship in African Agriculture, and of GTZ, is gratefully acknowledged. 18 A BACKDROP TO INDIGENOUS AGRICULTURAL INNOVATION: INSTITUTIONAL ACTIVITY IN THE CENTRAL PLATEAU

In the near subsistence communities of the Central Plateau region of Northern Burkina Faso farmers deal with a diversity of actors involved in natural resource management interventions. This range of actors includes:

• A variety of projects for soil and water conservation, most small in scale, promoting low cost techniques for land rehabilitation that have been developed over the last decade. These techniques are spread through the work of European volunteer services, NGOs and various government/bilateral programmes. Key techniques, notably contour stone lines, have now been widely adopted by local communities and individuals.

• Government community forestry programmes, bilaterally supported by Dutch and Swiss funds and personnel. Latterly these have promoted agroforestry systems and techniques to manage natural forest areas, and involve the training of 'peasant foresters' (Gubbels, Kessler and Boni 1990).

• Government-run agricultural extension services, supported in part by international donors and, in most cases, employing 'training and visit' methodologies. Composting techniques and low-input farming methods are advanced; less attention is now given to improved cereal varieties or chemical inputs. Crop protection and veterinary services also exist, but on a small scale and with financial constraints.

• Projects of various types promoting 'village land use management' (Gestion deg. Terroirs Villageois) approaches to natural resource management, cutting across the above domains and often involving both NGOs and government services. Village land use management(VLUM) projects aid village organisations to take control of and manage the territory over which they enjoy traditional land rights, and may incorporate soil and water conservation and other improvements on this land. A national VLUM programme is funded by World Bank and bilateral aid.

The existence of this particular set of rural actors on the Central Plateau has opened up significant opportunities for farmers and their organisations to extend the reach of their own environmental management activities in new ways; for

19 example by requesting training programmes or assistance with expensive, non- local materials required for land rehabilitation. Land users who understand the limitations of their resource base have their own agendas for change, and actually treat development projects as a resource to aid their own self- development. In return, land users' knowledge base is both widened and altered. Several studies (Bebbington, 1992; Uphoff, 1992) have noted this process and looked at its concrete implications for empowerment of farmer organisations. Here I focus on a further dimension - how projects may conceptualise, learn from and use farmers' changing indigenous technical knowledge (ITK).

THE CONSTRUCTION AND MANAGEMENT OF DRYLAND FARMING SYSTEMS

Paul Richards (1989:51) has suggested that, in the case of shifting cultivators in tropical West Africa, farmers attempt to "hitch a ride upon, rather than override and forcibly control, processes observed in `nature'". This is rapidly becoming the most common image of West African farmers in the 'indigenous knowledge' literature (see Floquet 1992). Richards's earlier work (1985, 1986) is widely read, and his populist outlook is wholly appropriate to the now-famous upland-lowland rice system which he describes in detail. But by contrast, further north in the dryland regions of the sub-continent, 'hitching a ride' is unlikely to get one to a chosen destination. The farming enterprise in degraded or nutrient-poor regions increasingly demands much more than short- fallow shifting or rotational cultivation and is less and less likely to be initiated with bush clearance. Keeping this enterprise going requires land users to marshal considerable labour and land resources, and to invest scarce capital in order to obtain what are sometimes meagre harvests from unyielding or exhausted soil.

A young (male) Mossi farmer in Burkina Faso must "build" his farm, from the moment he leaves the family plot to commence cultivation on his own account, to meet regular subsistence needs through the years. As Chris Reij (1992) has suggested for the Yatenga Mossi region, it appears that, where fertile land is scarce, young men lacking private land access and income may choose to "carve out" a farm from the barren, crusted soils of previously abandoned marginal land (termed zipelle). Similar processes can be observed elsewhere on the Plateau, for example in the close-settled zone around Kongoussi in Barn Province. These actions require not the clearing of vegetation from rich soils, as in the Sierra Leone case, but the painstaking construction of planting pits (zai), and the

20 collection and transport of manure to the site in order to restore basic fertility to the rooting zone and to encourage termite activity. Reij suggests the treatment of lha of land - barely enough to nourish a farmer and a small family for a season - may, take up to 100 person - days of backbreaking labour, and points to similar examples of highly intensive regenerative schemes in Niger. Frequently, planting pits are supplemented by semi-permeable stone contour bunds, to aid the infiltration of scarce runoff and brake the erosion of topsoil.

Unlike the case of the shifting cultivator in the Sierra Leone rice zone, this young Mossi farmer's goal is not to steal a living on a plot destined to return to the natural forest from which it came - rather, the savings that went into his/her initial investment demands the farmer abstracts a return from his/her labour in terms of crop yield for several seasons. In so doing, a successfully reclaimed and productive field may inspire admiration and perhaps jealously from one's peers. This applied equally to the main household plot as to womens' personal fields (Compaore 1993). Those who build their own habitats tailor them to their own needs, and generally stay put for quite a while.

This "building of habitat" in degraded lands owes much to ideas brought into the area by external agents. Ethnographic work on knowledge transmission and farmer-project 'interfaces' carried out for this study in 1992 revealed a staggering range of long-standing agricultural practices and erosion control techniques among Mossi, Yarse and Peulh cultivators. These include the construction of stick and stone bunds, micro-variations in planting densities and spacings, the use of millet-stalk mulches to encourage termite activity in hardened soils, and selective cutting of forest areas to encourage natural regeneration of woody species. However, the larger-scale, labour-intensive practices which are more appropriate for the reclamation of severely degraded land practices such as the construction of zai and extensive contour bunds are techniques promoted by project and extension services. They were rarely practised before the arrival of volunteer services and NGOs in the late 1970s. Reij (1992) dates the first improved zth techniques to this period. The first 'digue filtrante' (permeable rock dam) on the Central Plateau is thought to date from 1981/2 and was initiated by a French volunteer in Rissiam, Bam Province (Vlaar and Wessenlink, 1990). Today, such techniques are widespread. Some farmers in the study area had learned of these techniques from neigbouring villages, not just from project personnel, and adapted them to their own individual requirements.

It would appear, then, that traditional agricultural practices have been supplemented by introduced (but locally developed) soil and water conservation

21 techniques, and that the latter are appropriate where degradation is well advanced (for example on severely indurated zipelle soils) where one is forced to actively build up a functioning and sustainable production system. Mossi farmers are engaged in carving out new agro-ecologies necessary to coax tired soils back into productive use: they are building for the future with new materials.

INDIVIDUALITY, DESIGN CHOICE AND LEARNING IN MOSSI COMMUNITIES

This use of ideas and techniques from external agents is itself an instance of a far more general phenomenon - the continuing incorporation of new ideas from a range of sources in the process of farm planning and management. This incorporation of new ideas occurs within certain constraints, but within those demonstrates much diversity reflecting individual farmers' choices. This can be illustrated by looking at the varying ways in which farmers piece together natural resource management based livelihood strategies. Historically, the Mossi have assured the resilience of their farms in several ways;

• By exploiting micro-environments, notably soil type differences. Soil characteristics are broadly correlated with position on a catenary sequence running from eroded, iron-rich escarpments (tanga) to clay-rich valley bottoms (baogho), and each is farmed according to different crop mix and seasonal calendar. Where two or more plots are cultivated, these are commonly dispersed spatially across different ecological zones.

• By varying planting and weeding dates to balance labour availability and to reflect uncertainty over rainfall regimes.

• By increasing efficiency of rainwater use and runoff collection, as described above; mainly stone and earth bunds, built across land contours.

• By increasing animal ownership. While not part of traditional Mossi farming systems, animals provide saleable assets yielding cash income when needed. Great attention is also given to the collection and dispersal of animal manures and compound sweepings. • By diversifying the production base, through off-farm activities, and so increasing the household's ability to absorb the costs of a poor farming year. The production of course-weave cloth, panniers and roofing materials are common.

22 • By using donkey ploughs, appropriate only to certain soil types and field location. Around 30% of households in the study villages operated ploughs in 1992.

These practices and design criteria form the architecture - the shape, the form, or design - of a farming system. Local ecology and environment - temperature and precipitation regimes for example, and soil types - limit the design possibilities, as do community sanctions or land tenure rules. They do not, however, disturb individual choice and creativity at the level of the individual cultivator. If the primary aim of farming is to insure basic subsistence needs, this can still be done in a staggering multitude of ways, even in remote Mossi villages in marginal and degraded environments. Around Rollo in northern Barn Province, for instance, communities of Peul pastoralists have long interacted with and lived alongside both Mossi agriculturalists and settled Yarse traders; each group shows a tendency to adopt a favoured livelihood strategy biased towards agriculture, herding or commerce, and each group 'makes a living' more or less successfully. Nonetheless individuals within these communities sometime diverge widely from traditional expectations. Some of the most successful farmers are Yarse, not Mossi, for example, and some of these, including returned migrants, are relatively new to farming.

If the primary aim of a farm is to meet family needs and objectives, this can equally be achieved by any number of designs, the possibilities are numerous. The reason underlying this agricultural diversity is not just individual whim or personal aesthetics; today, a farmer in northern Burkina can design his farming system based on multiple sources of information about practices, tools and techniques (cf Biggs, 1989). First and foremost amongst the bearers of knowledge are other farmers and neighbours; see what they have done, learn from their experiences, adapt their strengths to one's own situation and needs. Secondly, as explained above, government extension workers and rural development projects have achieved almost 100% coverage on the Central Plateau and most communities, should they choose, can participate in some other programme of field visits from agriculture and forestry extensionists. Furthermore, if they demonstrate sufficient cohesion, community spirit and capacity for hard work they may then tap into project funds for environmental protection, health or maternity care, water supply or primary schooling.2 Travel and migration provides a third route to new ideas allowing farmers to see what

2 Regretfully, women's cropping practices are less frequently addressed by these services (Athanase 1993, Compaore 1993). 23 other villages have done, what crop varieties they use, how their stone lines are constructed or what tree species thrive and protect fragile soils in other places.

None of these information channels determines the design of an individual farm. Nor do they all work out successfully. They do however broaden the range of experiences from which lessons are drawn. For example, adapting an outside technique, even the relatively accepted contour stone line, can be a hazardous business. Farmers told me they did not care for one farmer's efforts at constructing such bunds across his fields because the "shape was not right" and ultimately this set of bunds was later washed out at the onset of heavy rains had to be rebuilt.

PLANNED PERFORMANCES AND FARMER STATUS

Diversity in Mossi dryland farming is also an affect of more subjective concerns. The use of the farm as a symbol of social status is an important factor in determining its final design. A design, in the Mossi case, is a one-off; there are no identical plots. Somewhere it will incorporate the essential motif, millet or white sorghum, but there may also be cash crops, experiments with garden crops, fruit trees and plantations.

In this sense, and to borrow another of Richards' metaphors (1987), the farm is a 'performance' to be appreciated by others as well as an object of personal accomplishment and satisfaction. Richards has suggested that the process of 'hitching a ride' upon ecological systems carries with it a refrain of improvisation and suppleness analogous to that of a freely interpreted performance by a talented musician. Little of such a performance, says Richards, is pre-planned - rather, crop mixes and farming operations are sequentially strunetogether, and elaborated with opportunism and creativity. This lack of planning may be so for shifting cultivators and rice farmers, but, in the case of newly-reclaimed lands set out above, there most certainly is a plan, and moreover an entirely conscious one. The plan is to firstly achieve a subsistence base overcoming the soil fertility constraints of bare and hardened earth. But it is also a plan to convey a particular message about the farmer to the rest of the community.

For instance, farmers' conscious efforts at land rehabilitation, while being entirely instrumental, do not diminish the fact that a farm is a symbol (cf Bebbington, 1992; Busch, 1979). It is not necessary to take agricultural symbolism to the absurd lengths favoured by western-style semiotics, in order

24 to appreciate that the suite of performances embedded in a farm signals to a wider audience something about its owner. It may say "I am rich, and have money for ploughs and fertilizer" or "I can do this, on my own", or "I have perseverance - my crops, through careful planting, survived the drought". Equally, a field of withered plants may broadcast a message of despair and failure, or simply a confirmation of a "bad year" for all. Stunted millet plants, yielding under 200-250 kg/ha, indicate low available nitrogen and phosphorus, and may provoke the comment from neighbours that it is "about time he/she moved" to land fallowed and richer in nutrients. Farmers exhibit considerable curiosity about each other's abilities, notably the extent to which an individual is able to second-guess rainfall patterns and manage planting, weeding and harvest operations successfully. In 1992, freak late rains ruined unharvested millet plants; those fortunate enough to have harvested early were viewed with a mixture of jealousy and appreciation by others. This is Bourdieu's (1990) symbolic capital. The farming space provides clues as to the character, status, wealth and labour power of its creator.

This source of diversity also fosters innovation, discussion and learning in the community. Gossip about the successes and misfortunes of other people is universal; the Mossi are no exception, and farms inspire great comment, derision and sometimes jealousy. Some planting strategies or farm designs run directly counter to prevailing practice, and are intended by the farmer as a means of questioning status roles and expectations. My favourite example is an oblique one; where a cropping strategy is used to dispute traditional authority and present a subtle image of rebelliousness. One of the most successful farmers I encountered in 1992 lives in a traditional, near-subsistence Mossi community. He is young, recently married, well-liked by his own age-set but - due to basic schooling and time spent in C6te d'Ivoire - a little stifled by the hierarchical and deferential Mossi social structure of his village. Wishing, however, to remain in the community and to farm, he signals to the elders his sense of difference and individuality. Firstly, he built a rectangular house - a different but not startling departure from the norm. Secondly, his main field is split equally between groundnuts and short-variety millet - the only farm in the village to deliberately place reliance on cash income and to de-emphasise the ubiquitous subsistence crop (which he sometimes sells - a very rare practice). Brush, wood and stone lines protect the crop from overland flow, and also aid water infiltration; aubergines and tobacco are grown under shade. These individualistic practices - which, not coincidentally, seem to work - set him aside from his neighbours and especially from the zero-input, millet stands of the elders' bush fields, whose censure he has not escaped! He has, nonetheless, presented the community with a new technical option.

25 Pursuing this theme, the 'wealthy' farmer will be gauged as much by the quality and quantity of his agricultural assets as by the money he has in the bank (the former are mare visible, for one thing, the latter merely a subject of speculation); as would,-equally, a well off businessman display his house and car as subtle (or not) symbols of financial security and wellbeing. A successful farmer can, once his 'estate' is secure, afford to relax a little and enjoy the security that it brings. Rich Mossi farmers rarely forego all manual labour on their fields, but may frequently hire labour to complete specific tasks (youthful work 'teams' or itinerant labourers, both working for cash, are now replacing more traditional age-sets who were paid in food and in kind). Visiting kin are offered the chance to comment favourably on the productivity of the land, or the fullness of ones' granary, and to feast at his expense. The rich can still overextend themselves - too much hospitality or purchases in lean years can leave one short on money to pay debts and can lead to cutbacks (e.g. borrowing to buy grain). The theft of a herd of cattle, for example, can bankrupt a rich farmer overnight. An unwise individual, who overextends himself in order to gain prestige and status, runs risks in any society. Sometimes, the truly rich attempt to disguise the extent of their assets to avoid the undue attention of hangers-on and demanding kin. The richest men in two villages studied in detail for this paper both ride old bicycles when in the village, and deny the real worth of their assets. Yet one owns a truck for animal commerce; the other has at least 16 prime cattle in addition to numerous goats and sheep, making him a rich man by local standards. Coincidentally, the two maintain modest dwellings indistinguishable from the village norm.

CONCLUSIONS - RECOGNISING MULTIPLE SOURCES OF CHANGE IN ITK

Agricultural knowledge in West Africa has been subjected to extensive and in many cases profound critique, not only by farmers themselves but by colonial officials, extension workers and the occasional social scientist. There are some grounds to believe this concentration of activity and reflection is beginning to yield rewards in terms of understanding; it has even filtered through to underpin the design of more effective, locally based and participatory interventions by rural development programmes. Past mistakes are repeated less often these days. The critiques of Richards and colleagues - that agricultural research and extension, has largely misread the map of peasant agriculture and promoted inflexible and inappropriate packages of marginal usefulness at best - have been taken on board. Northern Burkina Faso, one of the poorest rainfed farming environments in West Africa, now hosts a multitude of non-governmental and

26 other initiatives moving forward slowly and with the relatively modest aim of assisting farmers to achieve marginal increments in food security through locally managed environmental management initiatives (notably soil and water conservation). This is a strategy for rural development which is more fully cognisant of ecological and social diversity than past efforts, and frequently involves local land users and their organisations in setting research and programme agendas, at least in part.

While it is not appropriate to make hard and fast conclusions pertinent to this new policy agenda from a paper such as this, the following issues present themselves as important to the continued development of locally based environmental management.

• Dryland farming can be planned, in the way that a builder is involved in multiple processes of reflection and action on the route to home construction and ownership. Farming requires conscious, sustained and physically strenuous effort over long time periods, with heavy initial investments. No farmer in northern Burkina is able to justify a labour investment in bush-clearing and rehabilitation of a plot which is later destined to be abandoned in the short term; many do not have the luxury of access to land suitable for traditional fallow-based cultivation, and thus their work must count. The sort of planning involved here is nothing to do with the dubious 'social engineering' agendas which Richards (1987) sees in some externally-imposed extension work, even if the activities of projects can be misguided or partial. It is ecological realities, not extension workers which drive the process. Ecological change requires forward thinking by farmers, the marshalling of resources, and the overcoming of - not just the working with - natural ecological constraints and environmental problems. Indigenous agricultural knowledge, long sidelined by development programmes, has changed to reflect the new demands placed upon dryland farmers. It has incorporated useable techniques such as stone contour bunds that have been developed in parallel environments, and already rejected inappropriate packages including chemical fertilisers (which are expensive, and poorly adapted to sahelian infertility) and 'improved' cereal varieties (which are appropriate, perhaps, to better soils and valley-bottoms only). To suggest that this process has somehow corrupted and weakened indigenous capacities is unhelpful, even misguided. I would argue that much of the success of techniques such as permeable stone bunds, now adopted and widely diffused on the Central Plateau, can be attributed to the fact that farmers there are already familiar with such major investments of time and labour

27 - and the need to work together in a communal fashion to get them built - as a result of previous efforts to make a living in conditions which are by any measure marginal for subsistence agriculture and which always required a measure of forward planning. The stone bund technique, whose importance to current farming systems cannot be underestimated, now forms part of present-day indigenous agricultural knowledge.

• But understanding such natural resource improvements is a complex affair. Initially, project staff believed fanners were embracing the technique and busying themselves building the stone bunds because they were interested in environmental protection. This may be the case, but only later did it become clear that some of the status and performance issues discussed above also came into play. For example a treated and visibly productive farm may help assure an individual farmers' agricultural needs, but it also speaks volumes about its owner's potential to manage and attract resources to the village.

• The same duality of purpose and symbol applies at the level of village groups and farmer organisations. Building anything - including stone lines, new dwellings and communal buildings - can elevate community status. Projects need to recognise that such activities are undertaken for reasons of prestige as well as for their more obvious benefits to crops. A well-managed village centre demonstrates superiority over neighbouring communities. Perversely, the act of working together in order to present this image can lead to internal village conflict being ignored or at least temporarily set aside. Completed 'works' can be consciously undertaken to present a particular image of diligence to potential donors and projects - "see how organised and hard working we are". Again, the literature on indigenous knowledge often skims over this aspect of forward planning. Indigenous knowledge is instrumental - it is put to work, not left in the bank to accumulate interest.

One must conclude that while recognising the value of indigenous local knowledge as a basis for carrying out agricultural tasks, it is also vital to acknowledge that farmers are equally capable of designing a plan of action and sticking to it, and of assimilating and valorising new knowledge from external sources. If we are really serious about turning over environmental management to local people, we need to recognise farmers as planners, not just performers.

28 Indeed the most valuable lesson learned through this study was that farmers organise their labour .schedules not just to 'farm' but also to build protection works, improve tracks leading to the village, raise and plant saplings in visible locations, welcomesvisitors and engage in a host of activities requiring deadlines and forward thinking. These vary by season and between years. Farmers in one particularly dynamic village designed their own land rehabilitation measures from scratch, discussed these in village meetings (both men and women present) and continue to adjudicate between multiple criteria when deciding how best to get the work done; consideration is given to land tenure around the areas to be treated, complaints of non-beneficiaries are discussed, local environmental considerations such as existing ravines and gullies examined, and responsibilities divided up.

The outsider's role may ultimately be to step back and provide a level of support necessary to allow this process of planning and inventiveness to take place, not introduce blueprints. The final issue, then, is what building materials, and what tools, and what outside help will be needed to build up and maintain the new agro-ecologies which the region is slowly developing. A role exists for modest external support to village organisations, in the form of both technical assistance and practical help and advice (Dumont, 1986). This is even more urgent in marginal farming environments like the Central Plateau. But the challenge remains to leave decision making where it really belongs - in the village.

REFERENCES

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30 Richards, P.(1987). Agriculture as a Performance. Paper presented at "Farmers and Agricultural Research: Complementary Methods", IDS, 26-31 July 1987. Shorter version published in Chambers R., A. Pacey and L.A. Thrupp (eds). 1989. Farmer First: Farmer Innovation and Agricultural Research. pp39-43. London: IT Publications.

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31 Overseas Development Institute Regent's College Inner Circle Regent's Park London NW1 4NS, UK Telephone: +44 71 487 7413 Fax: +44 71 487 7590 Telex: 94082191 ODIUK