The Cultural Economy of Soil and Water Conservation:
Market Principles and Social Networks in Eastern
Burkina Faso
Valentina Mazzucato and David Niemeijer
ABSTRACT
Soil and water conservation interventions in Africa have had a chequered
history, calling into question the way in which soil and water conservation
technologies have been studied in the past. This article draws on a case study
from eastern Burkina Faso to explore an area usually ignored by soil and
water conservation studies Ð the role of social institutions in guiding decisions
regarding the use of technologies. It looks at soil and water conservation
through the historical development of what the authors call the `cultural
economy', that is, a system of exchange in which a market economy has mixed
with pre-existing forms of exchange. The approach adopted by the authors
identifies concepts on which the cultural economy is based and uses these
ideas to analyse institutions that affect the choice of soil and water
conservation technologies. The article shows how this approach leads to a
reconceptualization of the ways in which soil and water conservation technologies are to be considered.
INTRODUCTION
Soil and water conservation projects have had a relatively long history in
Africa, beginning in the 1930s when colonial governments became concerned
with the impact of soil erosion on the productivity of the land. By the 1980s,
however, researchers and development practitioners alike became increasingly
aware that soil and water conservation interventions had, at best, a patchy
record (Hudson, 1991; IFAD, 1992; Pretty, 1995; Reij, 1991; Shaxson et al.,
1989). Often, these large-scale projects were guided by a top-down transfer
of technology paradigm in which technologies were developed by scientists and
extended to a population that was expected to eagerly accept them. In practice,
when the project personnel left the area, the soil and water conservation
measures which they had promoted would seldom be maintained by the
local population, who would instead revert to their own way of doing things.
This lack of success has challenged researchers to find new ways in which
to study soil and water conservation. Such studies had been dominated by a
techno-economic perspective in which technologies were narrowly defined in
Development and Change Vol. 31 (2000), 831±855. # Institute of Social Studies 2000. Published
by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK.
832
Valentina Mazzucato and David Niemeijer
terms of scientifically developed measures and the main interest was in
valuing their ability to conserve soil and water and in contributing to higher
productivity and income. In the 1980s, new approaches were developed for
studying soil and water conservation ranging from farming systems research
that focuses on systems, through political ecology that points to the importance of broader economic and political forces, to the indigenous knowledge
school that argues that farmers' own knowledge needs to be studied and
understood before soil and water conservation interventions can be developed
and carried out. However, none of these approaches specifically focuses on
the role of local social institutions in affecting the choices farmers make
about soil and water conservation technologies.
In our study of soil and water conservation in eastern Burkina Faso, we
take the approach of studying what we call the cultural economy. This
approach identifies concepts on which the local economy is based and uses
these ideas to analyse social institutions that affect the decisions that farmers
make relating to the use of technologies. We will show how such an approach requires a reconceptualization of what soil and water conservation is
and consequently adds new insights into how soil and water conservation
interventions should be conducted.
In the following section, we will elaborate on our approach to the study
of soil and water conservation. We then introduce the research area and
describe the kinds of soil and water conservation technologies employed by
local farmers. After examining the historical development of the cultural
economy, we return to the specific soil and water conservation technologies
of the case study and reconsider these in light of what we have learned from
the cultural economy. Finally, we draw some conclusions and address the
policy implications of our findings.
THE STUDY OF SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION
In our study of the cultural economy we seek to distinguish ourselves from
the dominant paradigm in economic studies in which the market economy is
used as a blueprint against which all economies are evaluated. Economic
studies of soil and water conservation technologies typically look at two
aspects: either they evaluate a technology (see for example de Graaff, 1996;
Kabore et al., 1994) or they analyse the conditions under which technologies
will be adopted by farmers (see for example Clay et al., 1998). In both these
kinds of studies, a market economy is presumed to be the dominant institution1
1. We define institutions similarly to North as being `the humanly devised constraints that
structure human interaction. They are made up of formal constraints (e.g. rules, laws,
constitutions), informal constraints (e.g. norms of behavior, conventions, self-imposed
codes of conduct), and their enforcement characteristics. Together they define the
incentive structure of societies and specifically economies' (North, 1994: 360).
The Cultural Economy of Soil and Water Conservation
833
guiding allocative decisions. In the first kind of studies, technologies are
evaluated according to income streams that they generate based on monetary
costs and benefits with discount rates that prescribe a specific value to time.
In the second type of studies, conditions in local economies are seen as
hampering the diffusion of innovations. These conditions are considered
`malfunctions' in the market such as missing markets, insufficient transport
infrastructure, imperfect information and the like, and solutions aim at
`getting institutions right'. In these analyses, farmers' decisions are explained
in terms of `rational' decisions given the imperfect institutions.
While we do not argue against the notion of rationality, we take the
view expressed by the anthropologist Sahlins (1976) and used frequently in
anthropological literature, that rationality is locally situated. That is, local
institutions determine what makes sense within a given society. Therefore, in
order to understand farmers' decisions regarding soil and water conservation
technologies, it is fundamentally important to study the local institutions
that guide these decisions. By studying social institutions, we venture into an
area that is usually ignored in soil and water conservation studies. In studies
which do address social institutions Ð usually more general studies about
how agriculture is conducted in local African contexts Ð these are often
seen as detracting from agricultural productivity (see for example Reardon
and Vosti, 1995). In this view social institutions require `investments' (Berry,
1989) by giving gifts, paying dowries, or conducting certain types of
exchanges to build relationships with other people. These investments are
seen as taking resources away from productive investments such as the
purchase of a plough which would enhance agricultural productivity.
Our approach to the study of soil and water conservation has been largely
influenced by social anthropological studies such as Berry (1984), Guyer
(1997) and Shipton (1989). Although these studies do not specifically deal
with soil and water conservation, their approach is oriented towards understanding farmers' rationales through their particular socio-cultural and
economic histories. They therefore do not focus on finding a western equivalent for categories or concepts, nor do they superimpose western systems
on the functioning of African systems. Rather, these studies look at local
institutions and through them analyse the ways in which social systems have
shaped and been influenced by conditions of agricultural production. They
thus link agricultural production with social, economic, and historical
processes.
In our study of soil and water conservation in two villages in the SudanoSahelian zone of Burkina Faso, we look into what we call the cultural
economy that lies behind the choices people make while going about their
daily business of agriculture. We do this by applying Berry's (1984) approach
for analysing agricultural change by `tracing changing uses of agricultural
surplus, at all levels of social agency, and analyzing the ways in which they
have shaped and been influenced by conditions of agricultural production
and linkages between agricultural and non-agricultural sectors of African
834
Valentina Mazzucato and David Niemeijer
economies' (Berry, 1984: 60). We have operationalized this approach by
focusing on the historical development of the local system of exchange.2
That is, we look at how the market economy has mixed over time with a
pre-existing system of exchange. This mixed system is what we shall call the
`cultural economy'.3
The characteristic that distinguishes the cultural economy from other
similar terms such as Hyden's (1980) economy of affection is its quality as
a mixed system. Thus the cultural economy does not imply, as does the
economy of affection, that there is an `uncaptured peasantry' that has
remained impermeable to market forces. Furthermore, by focusing on a
mixed system, we differ in approach from studies that analyse developing
country systems as being pluralistic in which individuals are seen to use
parts of different systems at different times, to their advantage (some
excellent studies use this approach to study local economies; see for example
Vel, 1994). We note this difference in approach because implicit in pluralistic
studies is that the market economy4 exists in its pure form and it may come
to dominate a country's `traditional' system of exchange. The concept of
a cultural economy implies instead that a market economy will always be
filtered through a society's socio-cultural and economic histories; thus, in
essence, pure market economies do not exist as every economy is a cultural
economy. Our decision to use a special term for this is not in the interest
of coining a new phrase, but rather in making a distinction between considering an economy as embedded in a socio-cultural and economic context,
on the one hand, and, on the other, conceptualizing African economies Ð as
economic studies tend to do Ð as being or aiming to be market economies.
LOCALLY-PRACTISED SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION
The research on which this article is based took place in two villages in
eastern Burkina Faso5 (see Map), one in Gourma province (south) and one
in Gnagna province (north). Both villages are over a century old and consist
of mainly Gourmantche inhabitants with surrounding wards of semisedentary Fulbe inhabitants. In the southern village the Fulbe inhabitants
are of recent origin, having arrived there some thirty years ago, while in the
2. By system of exchange we mean the ways in which, and the goals for which, goods and
services are exchanged among people, within the context of the social institutions that give
meaning to these exchanges.
3. Term borrowed from Shipton (1989).
4. By market economy we mean an economy that functions according to neo-classical
economic principles.
5. The terms `eastern Burkina Faso' or `eastern region' refer to the whole eastern part of the
country that coincides with the Gnagna, Gourma and Tapoa provinces of the 1984
administrative division.
The Cultural Economy of Soil and Water Conservation
835
north the first Fulbe settlement dates back over a century. According to the
1996 census, population densities are relatively low ranging from twenty
inh./km2 in Gourma province to thirty-six inh./km2 in Gnagna province
Map of the Research Area in Eastern Burkina Faso
0
10
20
30
40
50 km
Bogandé
tarmac road
secondary road
provincial capital
departmental capital
research village
Gnagna
provincial boundary
Bilanga
northern research village
Gourma
to Ouagadougou
Fada-N'Gourma
0
50
100 150 200 250 km
Mali
Niger
southern research village
Gnagna
Ouagadougou
Gourma
Tapoa
Burkina Faso
Benin
Ghana
Ivory Coast
Togo
natural
reserves
836
Valentina Mazzucato and David Niemeijer
(INSD, 1998). Average annual rainfall for the period 1970 to 1998 ranges
from 500 mm in the north to some 900 mm in the south. During the single
annual rainy season the principal crops grown are sorghum and millet,
which are the main staples (for further details on the farming system, see
Table 1). While this is an area of low project intervention relative to the rest
of Burkina Faso, the northern province has, since the late 1980s, become the
object of development projects aimed at combating land degradation.
Table 1. Overview of the Gourmantche Agricultural System
Rainy season
May±September.
Staples
Sorghum and/or millet intercropped with cowpeas.
Other important crops
Groundnuts, maize and sesame (as a minor intercrop).
Secondary crops
Rice, Bambara groundnuts, sweet potatoes, cassava, cotton,
soya, yams, tobacco, okra, rosella and kenaf.
Livestock
Chicken, guinea-fowl, goats, sheep, cattle, donkeys and
mainly in the south also pigs and rabbits.
Important bush products
Shea nuts, locust pods and baobab leaves.
Agricultural equipment
The primary agricultural equipment that people own, apart
from the hand hoe and axe, are ploughs. However, only 20%
of households owns at least one (in most cases donkey-drawn)
plough (MARA, 1996a). With virtually no exception, women
do not own ploughs.
Organization of production
The head of a household is responsible for the fields on which
the household's food is grown. Additionally, if time permits,
household members (including women and children) will each
have one or more personal fields. The production from these
fields may be marketed if the production from the household
field suffices for the household's consumption needs.
Organization of fields
Intensively managed compound fields for quick maturing and
fertility demanding crops as well as sauce ingredients; less
intensively managed village fields for a variety of crops, and
extensively managed large bush fields for the major crops.
Important changes have occurred in the region in recent decades.
Although population densities are relatively low, the study area has, in
the past forty years, experienced a near threefold increase in livestock
population and a fourfold increase in human population (see Figure 1). As
a result, the cultivated areas in Gourma and Gnagna provinces doubled
between 1956 and 1988, from 4 to 8 per cent (CRPA de l'Est, 1992). As can
be seen from Figure 2, annual rainfall in the region has been showing an
irregular but downward trend since the 1950s. There are, however, important differences within the research area. Our southern research village, for
example, had a population density of thirteen inh./km2 in 1996, with only
5 per cent of the village territory under cultivation. By contrast, the northern
research village, with a population density of some fifty inh./km2 in 1996, is
The Cultural Economy of Soil and Water Conservation
837
Figure 1. Human and Cattle Population in Eastern Burkina Faso,
1903±1996
1,000,000
20.0
900,000
18.0
700,000
16.0
human population
cattle population
14.0
600,000
12.0
500,000
10.0
400,000
8.0
300,000
6.0
200,000
4.0
100,000
2.0
0
1900
1920
1940
1960
1980
Density (km-2)
800,000
0.0
2000
Year
Source: Mazzucato and Niemeijer (2000).
Notes: Population data before 1960 are based on colonial reports and are of dubious quality
given the lack of personnel to carry out extensive surveys, the reticence of the local population
to be enumerated (because of the head tax and labour and army recruitment), and the political
motivations that locally stationed personnel had to provide consistent and impressive numbers
to the metropolitan authorities. Data after independence are probably of greater accuracy but,
due to the vast area that needs to be covered and the limited resources, continue to have a
considerable error margin. These observations are even more true for livestock data given the
general reluctance of owners of livestock to disclose how many head of cattle they own.
Nevertheless, the general trend observed in this figure is likely to reflect reality.
Figure 2. Rainfall in Fada N'Gourma, 1920±1998
1400
1200
Rainfall (mm)
1000
800
600
400
200
0
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
year
Source: Records of national meteorological service (Direction MeÂteÂo), Ouagadougou.
Note: Records for years marked by an open diamond are incomplete towards the beginning
and/or end of the rainy season: at least the marked amount of rainfall was recorded for that
year.
838
Valentina Mazzucato and David Niemeijer
on a par with the average densities of Burkina's Central Plateau, one of the
most densely populated areas in the entire Sudano-Sahelian agro-climatic
zone. In the northern research village as much as 20 per cent of the territory
was covered by crops in 1996, which is above the average of 17 per cent for
the Central Plateau (Mazzucato and Niemeijer, 2000).
Through interviews and observations over a three-year period, we have
found that in both villages farmers have extensive theories about soils,
ranging from characteristics of different types of soils, to processes related
to soil formation and soil fertility. They realize that certain activities and
processes can lead to degradation, recognize their role as actors in these
processes, and identify solutions to avoid degradation (for a detailed
description, see Mazzucato and Niemeijer, 1998).
Given the increased pressure on the land, the declining rainfall and the
extensive knowledge system, we had expected soil and water conservation
technologies to play an important role in the cultivation system, especially in
the densely populated northern research village. However, we did not find
the widespread use of soil and water conservation technologies that we had
expected. While farmers in both villages used a large repertoire of local soil
and water conservation technologies (see Table 2), the majority of which
date back to at least the beginning of this century, they are only applied
selectively, with a somewhat higher frequency in the north than in the south.
Our study found that mechanical measures (that is, those involving the
building of structures such as stone, earthen or vegetative barriers) are quite
limited in use: few fields have them and when they do they are often limited
to short distances. Agronomic and biological measures (such as the use of
mulch, residue from crop processing, or compound refuse) are common but
limited to small areas. All of these technologies are mainly applied to compensate for differences in soil quality within a field or to selectively increase
fertility for demanding crops such as maize. There are other agronomic and
biological measures that are widely used in our study area, but these are not
commonly considered in soil and water conservation studies because they
are less visible and are difficult to measure. These rely mainly on management skills such as leaving fields fallow or switching between crops and
varieties according to changing soil properties and expected rainfall (Mazzucato and Niemeijer, 1998).
Worsening climatic and population trends and lack of mechanical soil
and water conservation technologies are often used as indicators of land
degradation (see Blaikie, 1989 for a review of sources). Despite this, none of
our analyses show evidence of land degradation. Long-term yield data
(Figure 3) show that in the eastern region yield levels of millet and sorghum
(the major crops) increased by a factor of 1.5 between the early 1970s and
the mid-1990s, in spite of decreasing rainfall. Given the relatively low use of
soil and water conservation one would expect this increase to be due to the
over-exploitation of fields (see for example van der Pol, 1992 on Mali).
However, neither spatial nor temporal analyses of soils showed any proof of
The Cultural Economy of Soil and Water Conservation
839
Table 2. Soil and Water Conservation Practices in Eastern Burkina Faso
Practice
Soil and Water Management
Agronomic/biological practices*
Crop
Different crops are grown throughout a field's cultivation
sequencing
history in response to the soil fertility decline caused by crop
production. The sequence usually starts with the most
demanding crop and ends with the crops requiring the least
amount of soil fertility. Crop sequencing is usually combined
with crop rotation (see below). This practice limits soil
nutrient depletion.
Extent
Very
widespread
Crop rotation
The crop sequencing practice (see above) includes periods in
which a particular combination of crops is rotated. While a
sequence may, for instance, start with 3 years of sorghum this
may be followed with a period in which sorghum and millet
are rotated on a yearly basis, to be replaced later by a
groundnut±millet rotation. This practice limits soil nutrient
depletion and reduces the risk of plant disease and weeds.
Fallowing
After a certain number of years a field is abandoned so that
soil fertility can be regenerated through natural processes.
Used extensively for bush fields but not for compound fields
which instead receive organic matter inputs.
Weeds are removed at several stages in the growing cycle of
the crop. This practice reduces moisture, nutrient and light
competition between the crop and weeds and therefore
increases yield while limiting nutrient and moisture losses.
Weeds are left to decay in piles on the field as a form of
compost.
Very
widespread
Selective
clearing
When a new field is cleared or an old fallow is taken into
production again, a number of trees and shrubs are left on the
field because of their edible fruits, medicinal properties or
other qualities. In addition, when removed, shrubs and trees
are usually cut about half a metre above the soil surface to
facilitate regeneration once the field is put to fallow. This
practice retains some soil cover, creates micro-climatic
differences within the field and speeds up fallow regeneration.
Very
widespread
Intercropping
Multiple crops are grown together on the same field, such as
millet/sorghum/cowpeas or groundnuts/sesame. This practice
reduces soil nutrient depletion when leguminous crops such as
cowpeas or groundnuts are included and improves the soil
cover thereby reducing susceptibility to erosion. It also
reduces the risk of total crop failure as some crops require
more rainfall than others.
Widespread
Crop variety
selection
Depending on the soil properties, the age of the field and the
expected rainfall, crops and varieties (land races) are selected
that require more or less soil fertility and/or soil moisture and
have a shorter or longer growing cycle. This practice reduces
soil nutrient depletion as crops are matched to the available
soil fertility and soil moisture and it reduces the risk of crop
failure.
Widespread
Adapted
pocket
spacing
Depending on the crop/soil combination, the `age' of the field
and the topographical position of the field, planting pockets
are spaced closer or farther apart. This practice adjusts
nutrient and moisture requirements of the crop to the field
conditions and reduces the risk of crop failure.
Common
Weeding
Very
widespread
840
Valentina Mazzucato and David Niemeijer
Table 2. (cont.)
Practice
Soil and Water Management
Extent
Thinning
Usually multiple seeds are sown per pocket and if too many
seeds germinate some plants are removed at an early stage or
transplanted to empty pockets. This practice ensures a
spatially balanced `consumption' of soil nutrients and soil
moisture by the crop thereby increasing the yield without
localized over-exploitation.
Common
Mulching
After harvest, stalks are left on the field or grasses and
branches are put on the field (during clearing or land
preparation) to increase humidity, reduce evaporation,
increase soil organic matter and reduce erosion by protecting
the soil surface. Often applied on poorly performing spots to
increase yields and maintain soil fertility
Common
Stubble
grazing
During the dry season livestock are allowed to graze the
stubble and stalks that remain once a field is harvested. This
practice improves the soil fertility through the livestock
droppings.
Common
Weeding
mounds
During the last weeding operation soil is gathered around the
feet of the plants to retain humidity when rainfall ceases. This
practice increases the yield through moisture conservation.
Less
common
Paddocking
After harvest, livestock and especially cattle are kept on a field
for several nights in a row so that their droppings will fertilize
the field. This may be livestock owned by the farmer or by a
Fulbe herder. In the latter case food and water are exchanged
for the paddocking.
Less
common
Household
refuse
application
Year round household refuse is applied to the compound
fields and some of the village fields. This practice increases the
amount of soil organic matter and improves humidity of the
topsoil.
At the onset of the rainy season, manure of livestock that is
kept at the compound (in night pen or attached to a pole) is
distributed on the compound fields and some village fields.
This practice increases the amount of soil organic matter and
improves humidity of the topsoil.
Mainly on
compound
and village
fields
Mainly on
compound
and village
fields
Year round, but especially at the onset of the rainy season,
crop processing residue is applied to compound fields and
some village fields. This practice increases the amount of soil
organic matter and improves humidity of the topsoil.
Mainly on
compound
and village
fields
Manure
application
Crop
processing
residue
application
Mechanical practices*
Stone lines
A short row of stones (ranging from a few metres up to a few
tens of metres) is placed where runoff water concentrates and
tends to form rills. This practice reduces runoff and erosion
and retains organic matter on the field. As most of the area is
relatively flat, rill and gully formation are not a widespread
problem.
Less
common
Wood
barriers
Branches are placed where runoff water concentrates and
tends to form rills. This is done where stones are scarce or
when quick action is required. This practice reduces runoff
and erosion and retains organic matter on the field while
increasing soil moisture in the vicinity of the barrier. As most
of the area is relatively flat, rill and gully formation are not a
widespread problem.
Less
common
The Cultural Economy of Soil and Water Conservation
841
Table 2. (cont.)
Practice
Soil and Water Management
Extent
Perennial
grass strips
Perennial grasses and sometimes other vegetation is kept in
one or more strips on a field to prevent erosion where runoff is
a problem. Sometimes grass is transplanted to create a grass
strip. This practice reduces runoff and erosion.
Less
common
Brick barriers
Clay bricks are sometimes used instead of stones, especially
inside the village. See further under stone lines.
Rare
Stone bunds
Unlike stone lines this involves multiple stones piled on top of
each other to create a stronger, higher, and usually longer
barrier. This is mostly found on steeper slopes and on
compound or village fields. This practice reduces erosion,
retains organic matter and improves soil moisture availability.
Rare
Earth bund
Large and broad earth bunds used to retain water on valley
bottom fields for rice cultivation. Prevents excessive runoff
(including seed loss), manages drainage and retains organic
matter on the field.
Common
on rice
fields
Earth barrier
Low earth barriers around a field. Used mainly on compound
fields to prevent runoff, manage drainage and retain organic
matter on the field.
Mainly on
compound
fields
Living hedge
Shrubs kept in situ or planted to form a hedge on a field
border to reduce runoff and prevent water and wind erosion.
Very rare
Note: (*) Agronomic/biological practices refer to particular management practices that make
use of agronomic skills and biological material rather than physical structures. Mechanical
practices, on the other hand, refer to practices that involve physical structures, often with a
barrier function.
Source: Mazzucato and Niemeijer (2000).
such over-exploitation taking place. Our analysis of soil samples taken in
the two villages comparing cultivated sites with sites that had not been
cultivated for at least twenty years revealed no significant difference in soil
fertility6 between the two kinds of sites (Mazzucato and Niemeijer, 2000).
Similarly, a comparison of our soil samples with those of a 1969 French soil
survey (Boulet and Leprun, 1969) did not show any decline in soil fertility
over time (Mazzucato and Niemeijer, 2000). This indicates that the use of
agronomic and biological measures (both the selectively applied measures
which use natural resources such as mulching and manuring, and the more
pervasive ones which use managerial skills such as selecting the right crop/
soil combination) have been effective components of an agricultural system
that conserves its soils.
In order to understand how this blend of soil and water conservation
practices was able to develop under circumstances of growing pressure on
natural resources, we wanted to take a closer look at the principles on which
6. In terms of soil organic matter and the major soil nutrients, nitrogen, phosphorus and
potassium.
842
Valentina Mazzucato and David Niemeijer
Figure 3. Millet and Sorghum Yields in Eastern Burkina Faso,
1957±1996
1200
yield (kg/ha)
1000
800
600
400
Millet
200
Sorghum
0
1955
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
year
Sources: Data compiled from the annual reports of the Statistical Service of the Ministry of
Agriculture, and the annual reports of the Organisme ReÂgional de DeÂveloppement de l'Est;
DSAP (1995); MARA (1996b, 1997).
farmers base their choice of agricultural technologies. Why, for instance, do
farmers prefer agronomic and biological soil and water conservation
measures to mechanical ones? For this, we elected to study the historical
development of the system of exchange and some of the objectives guiding it.
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS OF THE CULTURAL ECONOMY
A `market mentality' widely exists in the study area. Men, women and
children can be found selling things both in markets and from their homes,
including produce from their own fields, prepared food products, petty
trade products like bicycle parts and cigarettes, and artisanry such as handwoven cloths and mats, as well as services including radio repairs and
tailoring. In both villages it was common to find people engaged in buying
grain just after harvest when it is cheap, in order to resell it just before the
rainy season when prices are at their highest. All villagers except for the very
old and the very young participated regularly in local markets either in
selling, buying (in the case of women often through commissioning), or just
being there and meeting friends. As a consequence, most villagers knew the
market prices of the goods they produced and how these varied over time.
Budget diaries revealed that even the monetary value of gifts received was
well known by respondents.
The Cultural Economy of Soil and Water Conservation
843
A network of markets has contributed to this pervasive `market mentality'.
The northern village is within walking distance of two markets (5 km and
8 km, respectively) that meet alternately every three days. One of these
markets is located on the border with Mossi territory and is frequented by
Mossi, GourmantcheÂ, and Fulbe traders who buy local products to resell
them in one of the country's most bustling markets, located about 50 km
away, in the neighbouring Mossi province. The southern village is located
3 km from a small, three-day market, but is only 15 km from Fada N'Gourma,
the provincial capital in which there is a daily market. Moreover, because
of its strategic location between Sahelian livestock-rich countries (Mali and
Niger) and the coastal, livestock-consuming countries (Togo, Benin, and
Ghana), Fada N'Gourma has since 1979 been the location of one of the
country's most important weekly livestock markets.
The strong influence of the market on people's daily lives is a recent
historical development. Trade existed in the region well before colonial
times but it was only after the colonization of the area that villagers became
progressively more involved until virtually every villager was taking part in
some sort of monetary transaction on a near-daily basis. As documented
through life histories and colonial documents,7 during the first part of the
twentieth century villagers participated with less frequency in the local
markets and purchased fewer of their day to day needs. By the 1970s, a large
variety of products was available in local markets and money was the
dominant medium of exchange.
The progressive pervasiveness of market transactions in people's daily
lives led to important changes in life-styles (Mazzucato and Niemeijer,
1996). The availability of second-hand western-style clothing eliminated the
necessity for a household to have a cotton field, for women to spin cotton,
and for men to weave it. Metal workers also became less of a necessity in
the village. Production units became smaller than in early colonial times,
partly because the advantages of a large production unit, such as security
and self-sufficiency, were replaced by the possibility of purchasing necessities
in local markets. Women became much more heavily involved in agricultural
activities (see also Hemmings-Grapihan, 1985) in order to earn money to
purchase goods which fall under their household responsibilities, such as
clothing for themselves and their children, medication, school fees, cooking
utensils and sauce ingredients. Until half a century ago women cultivated
sauce ingredients on a portion of the household fields and occasionally
helped in cultivating the household's cereal fields. Now they not only work
7. See Rapport de TourneÂe du Commandant de Cercle No. 228, par Duranthon, Fada
N'Gourma, 20 Mai 1915; CNRST: B II 3; Rapport de TourneÂe effectueÂe par l'adjoint des
services civils Garnier dans les cantons de Bilanga et Bilanga Yanga du 1e Juillet 1937 au
1e AouÃt 1937 et du 11 AouÃt 1937 au 9 Septembre 1937, Garnier, Fada N'Gourma, 18
Septembre 1937; CNRST: B IV (5).
844
Valentina Mazzucato and David Niemeijer
daily on the household fields, but also have their own cereal and groundnut
fields with which to earn an income.
The presence of markets does not necessarily imply that they function
according to the precepts of neo-classical economic theory. In fact, economists often highlight the various `malfunctionings' of African markets.
One of the most frequently encountered of these is missing information
(de Janvry et al., 1991) because, for example, it allows vendors to sell at
prices above the point where supply meets demand. However, along with an
extensive network of markets we also found an apparently efficient information system in place. A market survey revealed that in both areas there are
small price differentials for like products8 within the same market. The
largest price differentials recorded were for groundnuts and maize in one
market, with an average deviation from the mean price offered by sellers on
any given market day of about 4 per cent for the two-year period in which
prices were recorded. Price differentials for the remaining products averaged
between 0.1 per cent and 3.1 per cent. Prices did differ between markets, given
variations in the markets' distance from farmers' fields and the numbers
of buyers and sellers frequenting the markets. Depending on the product
and markets compared, average price differences ranged between 3 per cent
and 27 per cent between markets over the two-year period. However, interviews with villagers showed that people are aware of these price differences
and in the northern village where villagers have the choice between two
virtually equidistant markets, it is common to find individuals calculating
where to buy and sell their goods according to where they can get the better
prices.
Alongside these indicators of a widespread market economy and a relatively well-functioning information system, there are other factors at work in
price determination than just supply and demand. The above analysis is
based on the prices which vendors stated for their products. Parallel to the
market survey, however, a price allocation survey was conducted in which
vendors were observed for a period of time and the prices they offered to
buyers were noted. The price allocation survey revealed that the prices
vendors stated are actually paid only about 60 per cent of the time. In
the remaining 40 per cent of cases, discounts or gifts were given to buyers
depending on the strength of their relationship with the vendor. Thus prices
paid were often lower than the prices cited by the vendors in the market
survey (Mazzucato and Niemeijer, 2000), indicating that social relationships
have an important influence on prices.
Thirty-five individuals kept a budget diary over a one-year period; these
also showed the importance accorded to social transactions in GourmantcheÂ
society. Social transactions are those exchanges that involve receiving gifts
or purchasing or selling things in order to make a gift or pay for a ceremony.
8. Products that were observed were millet, sorghum, cowpeas, groundnuts, rice and maize.
The Cultural Economy of Soil and Water Conservation
845
If we look at total outflows, that is, what people buy, give, or lend out,
social transactions are the only category of outflow transactions9 apart from
buying basic necessities in which every case study individual engaged.
Furthermore, although patterns of outflows differed between people and
between villages, social transactions were the second largest outflow category
for sixteen, and the largest for eight of the thirty-five individuals.
Although we valued gifts in monetary terms, the value of gifts goes well
beyond the price of the object given. The timing of gifts can highlight this
point. If we divide the year into three periods Ð after the harvest, the dry
season, and before the harvest Ð the majority of food and monetary gifts
among the studied individuals in the northern village and the majority of
monetary gifts among the studied individuals in the southern village were
given in the last period, when people are most hungry and in need of food or
money to purchase food. The value of gifts given at such a time can be the
difference between life and death for the recipient. More generally, gifts go
beyond the monetary valuation of the object given because of the relationship they establish between the giver and the receiver (Mauss, 1950).
The prevalence of social transactions shows the importance accorded to
relationships between people, which is a value commonly associated with the
`traditional' functioning of an African system. However, we found these
aspects of a `traditional' system to have been changed and influenced by the
market economy so that rather than seeing two different systems, one
dominating the other at particular points in time, we found a mixed system,
what we call the cultural economy, with its own set of objectives.
Gifts of grain virtually always occur between kin relations. Comparing
this with information from interviews and family histories, we note that
these gifts are more restricted now than in the past. This seems to be due
to the influence of the market economy. Whereas until about thirty years
ago there was very little to do with excess grain production, now it can be
sold. As explained by a villager, `in earlier times, we would lend grain even
to a lazy person who did nothing all season to grow his own grain. And we
would even tell him to keep it! Now if someone is lazy, no one will give him
any grain. We can sell our grain. But if someone tried hard and had bad luck
we will give him grain'. This explanation demonstrates that the cultural
value of helping someone in need is still very much in place and serves to
compensate someone who had the bad luck to be on the wrong field in the
wrong year. But it also shows how one now needs to deserve a gift through
hard work on one's own fields. This means that it is necessary to invest more
time and resources in building a social network than in the past. It also
9. We used eight outflow transaction categories: buying basic necessities (food, clothes,
household necessities, medicine, maintenance and education fees), buying livestock,
buying for off-farm activities, buying for agriculture, paying for services, giving out or
repaying loans, social transactions, and other.
846
Valentina Mazzucato and David Niemeijer
exemplifies how the changes brought about by the mixing of a market
economy with social security objectives is not without its tensions and
hardships.
While money has made networks of grain gifts more restricted, it has
contributed to widening the scope of other types of networks. We found, for
example, that in areas where historical relationships of trust between
Gourmantche and Fulbe are absent, such relationships are now initiated
and maintained through the use of money. Similar to the findings of
Breusers et al. (1998) for Mossi±Fulbe relationships, trust is an important
factor in relationships between Gourmantche and Fulbe, as Fulbe herders
often herd the cattle of the GourmantcheÂ. Cattle ownership has grown
among the Gourmantche because it is one of the preferred ways to invest
one's savings; trust relationships with the Fulbe are thus increasingly
important for the GourmantcheÂ. In our northern study village, where Fulbe
settlements have existed for well over a century, historical ties are used to
forge and maintain herding relationships. In the southern village, however,
Gourmantche rely on the practice of lending money to Fulbe in order to
ascertain the trustworthiness of a herder. Several informants, when talking
of forming special friendships, mentioned the practice of beginning a
relationship by giving a monetary loan and seeing if the person will pay it
back. If the person repays the loan, the next loan will be bigger and the
process continues this way until the Gourmantche decides to ask the Fulbe
to herd his cattle for him. Our budget case-study of Gourmantche households shows that in the northern village monetary loans between Gourmantche and Fulbe were very rare, whereas in the south they were common
practice.
In sum, while a society based on social security networks is most often
associated with a `traditional' system, we have seen that these networks have
changed to adapt to the influences brought about by a market economy.
Social security networks have changed in composition; money has become a
way to extend relationships beyond the lineage, as well as altering their
intensity, as monetary profits have made mutual help more selectively given.
This latter change requires a heavier investment to be made in selected
relationships.
SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION RECONSIDERED
Having gained some insight into the system of exchange and into some of
the objectives guiding it, we will now consider how these objectives influence
the choice of agricultural technologies and why a system of soil and water
conservation based on management skills is adopted.
We have already noted the limited use of mechanical measures in the
study villages. Let us focus now on the example of stone bunds, one of the
technologies most widely extended by development projects, and an example
The Cultural Economy of Soil and Water Conservation
847
in which our analysis of the cultural economy can add some additional light
to economic explanations for the use or non-use of this technology. One
explanation for the lack of use of stone bunds offered by economic studies is
the labour requirement involved. Studies have pointed to people's reluctance
to organize themselves on their own to build bunds on each other's fields,
and economic explanations emphasize labour as a major constraint (de Graaff,
1996; Kabore et al., 1994). This does not, however, explain the common
occurrence in our study region of labour parties in which people organize
themselves to work on each other's fields during tillage, weeding or harvesting times. The periods in which these labour parties are organized are
exactly the times when labour is needed by everyone and is thus a much
scarcer resource than when it is needed to build bunds in the dry season.
Another economic explanation for the lack of interest in bunds is that
bunds produce benefits too far into the future (de Graaff, 1996). In our
research area, with growing populations of people and livestock, declining
rainfall, and an expansion of cultivated area, a disregard for what happens
to the land in the future would result in soil mining. Soil mining, as van der
Pol (1992) explains, occurs when farmers reap as much as they can for the
present without making sufficient efforts to maintain the productivity of
the land for the future. They may, for instance, resort to clearing new land
rather than returning to, and improving, their old fallows. However, we
found no evidence of land degradation or of soil mining practices in our
research area, which makes the explanation that farmers do not appreciate
benefits further into the future not fully satisfactory.
Finally, another argument that has often been made, and which formed
the basis of World Bank policy on land tenure in the 1980s, is that traditional tenure arrangements are too insecure and thus hamper investments
in the land as they cannot guarantee that the benefits of these investments
will accrue to the individuals making them (Bassett, 1993; Lambert and
Sindzingre, 1995; Timberlake, 1985). However, our findings concur with the
growing amount of literature showing that traditional tenure arrangements
do not act as a disincentive to invest in land (Barrows and Roth, 1990;
Gavian and Fafchamps, 1996; Ouedraogo et al., 1996; de Zeeuw, 1997).
None of the countless interviews we had with farmers on their use of soil
and water conservation measures revealed that land tenure was a consideration they took into account when deciding whether to invest in such measures.
Furthermore, and contrary to the findings of Gavian and Fafchamps (1996),
cultivation histories based on six case studies in our two research villages
revealed no relationship between form of tenure (borrowed or ancestral
land) and use rights (individual or household field) on the one hand, and
agricultural decisions and cultivation practices on the other. In all cases we
found that farmers applied soil and water conservation practices, such as
those described above, to adjust for the changing qualities of the soil due
to its being cultivated. Farmers therefore often increased their conservation activities towards the end of the cultivation period in response to a
848
Valentina Mazzucato and David Niemeijer
production decrease on certain parts of the field. The fact that such a field
would soon be left fallow or be used by someone else was never mentioned
as a concern.
We therefore return to our finding that social networks are important in
Gourmantche society to see if this can provide some additional insight into
the non-use of bunds. In the words of Mauss (1950), there is no such thing
as a free gift. This is not to imply that Gourmantche society is so utilitarian
that behind every exchange is the premeditated calculation of what can be
gained in return: however, gift-giving implies entering into a relationship
with someone and this relationship binds the giver and the receiver into a
series of exchanges. These exchanges serve to create and maintain a social
network. A labour party called for cultivation purposes demands labour but
also, as a direct result, produces grain that can be used in a series of exchange transactions. The construction of a bund does not directly produce
anything that can be used in social network building. Bunds thus create a
uni-directional transaction: one `debits' oneself by asking for labour for
bund construction without creating a possibility to give something in return.
One can `repay' the labour obtained for a labour party by giving one's own
labour to someone else's labour party, but for a bund it is more difficult:
everyone needs a labour party for cultivation every once in a while but not
everyone needs a bund.
The focus on social networks can also help explain why investments in
agricultural technology such as ploughs are more popular than making
stone bunds. The importance accorded to social networks makes the lending
qualities of a technology attractive: one can lend a plough but not a bund.
We found that while the number of ploughs owned is low in both villages,
the practice of borrowing them is extensive. More than half of the villagers
who do not own a plough said they borrowed one at least once a year.10 The
case of women is revealing. Following in detail the cultivation practices of
six households during one year, we found that women gained access to
ploughs for use on their fields through borrowing them from their relations.
While the act of borrowing was never accompanied by an explicit agreement
about payment, in every case that we encountered the return of a plough
was accompanied by a gift. Thus the lending of equipment leads to a series
of exchanges and as such, uses and also maintains (through the reciprocity
of exchanges) social networks.
In the study area, we found a system of soil and water conservation with
an extensive repertoire of agronomic and biological measures. Of all these
measures, those relying mainly on management skills were the most widely
used. If we look at these measures through the institution of social networking,
10. In terms of the timing of agricultural operations borrowing a plough is of course not as
good as owning one, but given the importance of borrowing it is clearly considered better
by many farmers than not having access to one at all.
The Cultural Economy of Soil and Water Conservation
849
we find that they often make use of, as well as maintain, social networks.
They also highlight how social networks are now increasingly being used to
access resources for agriculture. We will focus on four specific cases: switching varieties, fallowing land, accessing labour, and investing in agricultural
equipment.
One way that farmers adapt to changing climatic conditions is by
switching the varieties (land races) of the crops they grow to varieties that
are better adapted to today's lower rainfall levels. This can be done only if a
sufficiently diverse range of varieties are available to a farmer. We found
that farmers accessed varieties as they needed them through their social
relationships. These relations extended beyond the village territory, for
example through exchanges with a wife's natal family, allowing varieties to
be accessed that had been maintained in areas with different soil and
climatic conditions. Such a diverse set of varieties would not be possible for
a farmer to maintain on his or her own fields alone.
Another practice is that of fallowing: farmers were found to have access
to enough land to be able to fallow their own fields. In the context of the
declining availability of uncultivated land, borrowing land as opposed to
clearing new land is becoming increasingly necessary. This makes it more
important to have networks of people from whom to borrow land. A recent
survey (MARA, 1996a: table 28) showed that in the eastern region some
15 per cent of the cultivated plots are borrowed. However, based on our
own experiences, and a 1978 survey cited in Swanson (1979) which gives a
figure of 27 per cent, we have the impression that borrowing is considerably
under-reported because of the difficulty in addressing such issues in questionnaires. The relations used for borrowing land were usually based on
kinship, making use of relations through the husband's family or through
the wife's family. The breadth of the network of people from whom land
was borrowed even allowed land outside the village territory to be accessed.
Such use of social networks means that people are not forced to overcultivate their own land, but can, when the time comes, leave their fields
fallow and temporarily cultivate someone else's land.
Social networks were also used to access labour. Within the last century
various factors such as colonial policy and market integration have led to a
decrease in size of production units (Mazzucato and Niemeijer, 1996). These
smaller production units are at greater risk of crop failure because any event
taking a member out of production, such as illness, results in a much greater
fluctuation in the total labour force than when production units were larger.
However, social networks are increasingly used to access labour, compensating
for such fluctuations. An indication of the changing use of networks to access
labour can be seen through the changing use of labour parties. In life histories,
we were told that labour parties were larger and less frequent in the past and
often had a prestige component to them (Senechal, 1970 documents similar
findings in Gourmantche villages north of our study region). Now most
labour parties are small and organized primarily for production purposes.
850
Valentina Mazzucato and David Niemeijer
Using social networks to access labour gives these small production units
more flexibility in their cultivation practices which, again, allows them not
to over-cultivate their own land. For example, accessing labour for specific
tasks allows a production unit to clear previously uncultivated or fallow
land (both highly labour-intensive tasks) rather than being forced to overcultivate one piece of land due to labour shortage. Furthermore, cultivating
a new piece of land involves some uncertainty: one knows how one's own
field produces but one can never know exactly how a new field will produce.
Networks allow farmers to take this risk by making available the gifts and
loans of food that may be necessary during the first years when a new field
produces less.
Finally, an additional, indirect way in which social networks have been
increasingly used for agricultural purposes is through the role that livestock
has in permitting agricultural investments. We found that purchases of
agricultural equipment were usually made by selling surplus agricultural
production and hardly ever by selling livestock. However, of the ten case
study individuals who owned a plough, eight had made this investment only
after they owned some cattle. This seems to indicate that cattle give a sense
of security that allows farmers to invest their excess production in agriculture. Thus networks with the Fulbe, which allow the Gourmantche to
own cattle, indirectly contribute to making investments in agriculture possible.
CONCLUSION
Our focus on the cultural economy has led our study of soil and water
conservation to look at aspects that are not customarily dealt with in technical and economic studies on this subject. Having observed the intricate
knowledge of soil and water processes among Gourmantche farmers Рyet
little of what is traditionally considered as soil and water conservation
technologies by scientists Ð we turned our focus to the historical development of local institutions and used these as the starting point from which to
analyse locally-practised soil and water conservation. While we have not
done justice to the full complexity of the historical development of these
institutions we hope to have given the reader a feel for the multifaceted ways
in which institutions have developed and are used, and how these have
repercussions on something as `technical' as soil and water conservation.
Through this focus, an African system that has been characterized as doing
little in terms of soil and water conservation (INERA, 1993) takes on a
different light. We have seen that social networks have changed in their uses
and composition. In particular, with respect to agriculture, networks are
increasingly being used for cultivation purposes. Although we began this
paper by agreeing with Berry in terms of the approach needed to look at
issues of soil and water conservation, we actually arrive at quite differing
conclusions from her 1989 article, in which she argues that investments in
The Cultural Economy of Soil and Water Conservation
851
social institutions diminish agricultural performance (Berry, 1989). Quite
the opposite, our analysis of the cultural economy has shown that social
networks provide the flexibility that allows farmers to choose from a
repertoire of technologies. This flexibility has contributed to a cultivation
system that has been able to adapt to changes without needing to resort to
extreme measures such as soil mining. In this light, investing in social
networks can be seen as indirect investments in soil and water conservation
and thus a contribution to a well-performing agricultural system.
This analysis has several research and policy implications. The first is the
need to study the role of social institutions in affecting decisions that
farmers make about technologies. By focusing on the interactions between
the social system and the system of production we have highlighted
processes of adaptation that occur to deal with changing circumstances,
be they of a climatic nature (like rainfall) or a social nature (like markets).
This does not imply that these changes are not without their tensions
and struggles but it does show how a cultural economy develops in which
farmers respond to market prices but through their own socio-cultural and
economic histories. The mixing of market and social networking objectives
over time has led to changing uses and composition of social networks. One
consequence of the changing role of networks has been their increased use
for agricultural purposes. Through studying the cultural economy a more
dynamic system emerges than in studies that view soil and water conservation either as purely technical or as a function of market incentives.
Secondly, we have identified other aspects of technologies in addition to
those focused on by more `standard' economic studies that may help the
development of locally accepted soil and water conservation technologies.
Soil and water conservation technologies were found to be more attractive if
they make use of or maintain a social network. For mechanical techniques,
this means that technologies that can be lent, such as the plough, are more
attractive than technologies that are fixed, such as a stone bund, which is
currently at the centre of soil and water conservation interventions in
Burkina Faso. Agronomic and biological measures that use resources such
as crop varieties, labour, and land are widely practised because they use
resources that can be accessed through social networks. Conversely, these
measures also provide the opportunity to engage in a series of exchanges
and as such help in establishing and maintaining networks.
Thirdly, our analysis also implies that interventions to conserve soil and
water should not only target specific technologies but rather focus on ways
in which farmers' abilities to network can be increased. Networks can serve
to increase exchanges of information. Projects that put farmers in contact
with each other to exchange ideas and experiences are a step in this direction
(Hassane, 1996). Towards the end of our fieldwork we put this idea into
practice by compiling different quotes of farmers' knowledge about agriculture and publishing them in a local language booklet (Koudougou et al.,
1998). This booklet was extremely well received by the farmers in our study
852
Valentina Mazzucato and David Niemeijer
villages as well as the regional literacy organization, which confirmed a great
demand among farmers for this kind of information. Additionally, this
article argues that social networks make it easier to take on a certain degree
of risk as well as creating flexibility in cultivation practices, both of which
help farmers to conserve soil and water. Intervention approaches could thus
focus on ways to expand and strengthen such networks.
How the market economy was used and adapted through local institutions
points to a further implication for interventions. The French colonialists
had tried to introduce a market economy a century ago. It was introduced as
a blueprint, but given the breadth and the multifaceted nature of the intervention, local populations were able to accept portions of it, adapt certain
aspects and change others completely, thus transforming their own cultural
economy. This indicates that rather than offer a blueprint, approaches to
development should offer a repertoire of options from which local populations can choose, adapting and using individual elements in the context of
their own histories, culture and institutions (see also Vel, 1994). This implies
a fundamental change in approach: development agencies cannot expect to
predict the end result.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Luca Bertolini, Mark Breusers, Nara Dillon, Shanti George, Paul
Richards, Niels RoÈling, Leo Stroosnijder, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful
comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this paper. We would also like to acknowledge
the financial and scientific support and assistance of the Antenne SaheÂlienne and the Erosion
and Soil and Water Conservation Group of Wageningen University that made the fieldwork for
this study possible.
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Valentina Mazzucato (Soil and Water Conservation Group, Department of
Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University, Nieuwe Kanaal 11, 6709
PA Wageningen, The Netherlands; e-mail: [email protected]) is an
economist with a specialization in anthropology. She has conducted
institutional and economic analyses on the effects of agricultural research
on the livelihoods of West African farmers and, more recently, has
researched the dynamics behind the intensification of African agricultural
systems.
The Cultural Economy of Soil and Water Conservation
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David Niemeijer is an environmental geographer. He has done research on
local runoff farming systems in Sudan and land evaluation in Benin. He
currently holds a post-doctoral position with the Environmental Systems
Analysis Group of Wageningen University (PO Box 9101, 6700 HB Wageningen, The Netherlands; e-mail: [email protected]) to develop
ecological indicators for sustainable food production.
The two authors are working collaboratively on the sustainability of
changing land use practices in eastern Burkina Faso. They have recently
published a joint study entitled Rethinking Soil and Water Conservation in a
Changing Society: A Case Study in Eastern Burkina Faso.