RA 00048.pdf - OAR@ICRISAT

should be understood that workers from the
extended family cultivate at least one principal
communal field and in addition there are many
secondary fields of varying importance which
have their own decision makers who are members
of the extended family but function independently.
Taking into account actual levels of production,
it has been noted that in order to conserve a
production equilibrium, the farms in the project
zone should respect a minimum ratio of 1 ha
cotton to 3 ha of cereal, thus:
0.10 ha cotton/inhabitant
0.30 ha cereal/inhabitant.
The results of farm surveys conducted in the zone
are shown in Table 1.
A reduction in cereal area/inhabitant could be
due to the combined effects of a rapid increase in
population and the drought which has been felt
throughout the country. Nevertheless it can be
seen from the table that there is a good relative
balance of crops except around Koutiala where
there is an important reduction in area cultivated
in cereals. This may be explained by the high level
of productivity in this region which has come
about as a result of the use of proper cultural
practices. The reduction in area around San is due
to a restructuring of the zone; in fact the actual
reduction is less than the table indicates.
The project zone is characterized by a single
short rainy season which has been very irregular
in the last few years, especially at the beginning.
The season extends from the end of May to
September. All rainfed crops must thus be grown
during this period of about 4 months. Until
recently millet and sorghum were planted with
the first rains on unworked soil which the farmers
would weed later so as not to lose time. Today, it
has become imperative that millet and sorghum
cropping be carried out with plowing or ridging to
be successful even with early seeding.
These work times come from the IER (Institut
d'Economie Rurale), April 1981, and represent 8
effective hours of work per man day or 10 hours
of presence in the field which takes into account
lost time for rest and meals. From the analysis of
the two systems it is clear that the bottlenecks
provoked either by increasing the area devoted to
cash crops or the time invested in cereal production
could not be overcome except by generalizing
the use of animal traction. The gain of more than 6
man days during a relatively limited period of time,
like the time of seeding, is considerable especially
if one takes into account that animal traction
results in better soil preparation, better root
penetration due to improved tilth, incorporation of
weeds and better soil aeration and a more active
microflora.
The Agricultural Calendar (Tables 2 and 3)
The large-scale introduction of cash cropping and
the increased demographic pressure have quickly
brought about an important reduction in the area
as well as the time that can be given to growing
cereal crops.
The Evolution of Animal Traction
Equipment in the Project Zone
The number of equipment units listed in Table 3
was used in 1979/80 to seed the following areas
Table 1.
Area (ha) per inhabitant for cotton and cereals.
Cotton
Cereals
Regions 1969/70 1979/80 1969/70 1979/80
Fana 0.12 0.13 0.35 0.22
Bougouni 0.01 0.01 0.06 0.08
Sikasso 0.03 0.05 0.18 0.21
Koutiala 0.13 0.13 0.39 0.24
San 0.04 0.02 0.68 0.18
Segou 0.05 0.12 0.60 0.56
Average 0.06 0.07 0.37 0.25
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