Production Entitlements

This chapter examines regional and household data on the production entitlements derived from cereals (millet and rice), livestock and fisheries. The importance of different sources of production entitlement is first examined for each livelihood system. As Chapter 7 has shown, for all sedentary producers, cereal production was habitually the main source of production entitlements, with pasturing and fishing revenue being a source of accumulation and wild food consumption reserved as a safety net for bad years. As livelihood systems become more vulnerable, secondary sources of production entitlements (herding and fishing) become increasingly central in meeting subsistence requirements (either directly, or through sales to purchase cereals) and thus move from secondary to primary sources of entitlement. Equally, tertiary sources of entitlement (e.g. wild foods), traditionally reserved for periods of food stress, are now regularly exploited in most years. Table 8.1 summarises the different categories of production entitlements for each livelihood system, under secure and vulnerable conditions. The importance of different sources of production entitlements for market dependence is discussed in Chapter 9.