The nutrition and health impact of cash cropping in west Africa: a historical perspective.
The impact of cash cropping in West Africa cannot be isolated from its social and historical background. Among the many changes brought to West African economies by cash cropping since the beginning of the century, the present document shows how the extension of trade with European merchants and colonizers created new sets of values and criteria for wealth. Food crops gradually lost their prominent cultural and economics roles to the benefit of export crops or goods. Traditional systems of agricultural production were profoundly disrupted by military actions. They imposed colonial rule and control of trade of tropical crops and goods. Forced labor and compulsory (poorly paid) work assignments were instituted for private and public enterprises: construction of roads, railways, public buildings and plantations. The main justification was the need for cheap labor to cultivate, transport and build roads for the extraction of raw materials. This in turn caused massive migrations from countries such as Burkina Faso (Upper Volta) to Ivory Coast. Cash cropping made systematic collection of taxes possible. An imposition on a per capita basis became the rule and the major incentive of small farmers to engage in commercial farming. Cash cropping made also possible extensive monetarization of West Africa. This results in both favorable and unfavorable effects on the quality of the diet. In profoundly disrupted traditional societies, the diffusion of new consumption patterns was easier and faster. It led to massive food imports of wheat, rice, sugar, alcohol, etc. Cash cropping was (and still is) practiced as a 'mining' agriculture, exhausting soils and deteriorating their fertility for extended periods of time. In the Sudanian and Sahelian zones cash cropping conflicted with the cultivation of grains because peak demands for labor were similar. Therefore, millet and sorghum production declined. Cash cropping was developed in response to the need of European economies for tropical products. However, colonization as a tool to obtain these raw materials was highly inefficient and associated with a considerable misuse of public funds. Together with cash cropping extension was created a network of intermediaries of large European corporations and shopkeepers who would efficiently drain all the earnings from cash cropping away from productive agricultural investments. It made possible the birth of local bourgeoisies and states dedicated almost exclusively to the extraction of a surplus value from the peasantry through cash cropping. It led to a displacement of the role of women; by attributing to them the less profitable food crops, the new production system managed to feed local cities and migrant workers at low cost. Cash cropping provides indirectly a new mean of exploiting women's labor.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
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Institut Agronomique Méditerranéen, Centre International des Hautes Etudes, Méditerranéennes, Montpellier, France.
D000354:Africa, Western; D000383:Agriculture / Q000379:methods*; D003906:Developing Countries; D005523:Food Supply; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D009752:Nutritional Status