L'introduction de cultures de rapport dans un village Senoufo du nord de la Côte-d'Ivoire

What is the impact of the introduction of cash crops (mainly cotton) into a Senoufo subsistence economy on the Northern Ivory Coast ? A four-year study in one of the villages located in Southern Boundrali intended to answer this question. The production system is characterized by a juxtaposition of subsistence crops and cash crops which is concretized by separate plots for each crop. The working capital which results from the cash cropping is almost exclusively devoted to this activity. The joint occurance of land extension, small overall growth of labour productivity and the absence of adequate working schemes for the crop year has caused a labour shortage which was unexisting before. However, land is plentiful in this area, which is why the attempt to stabilize crop land was a failure. The farm enterprize which is defined as the coincidence of consuming and producing units follows two different trends. On one hand the influence of the chief on the individuals is reduced as the size of this enterprize decreases due to emigration and segmentation but also to the extention of individual plots. On the other hand, the head of the farm enterprize operates a stricter control on total assets through the monetary gains from cash crops.