Comparative Agriculture

Labour commodification, differentiation, and marginalization of the peasantry in Sella Limba (Sierra Leone) from 1950 to the present

“…In 2011, during the field research period, 1 euro equalled 5,500 leones on average. 11 This data, which dates from 2011, is the result of the analysis of agricultural practices on the scale of the cropping systems based on the decomposition of the landscape into agro-ecological facets and of a zoning of the region under study(on these concepts, see Cochet, 2015). Although this analysis goes beyond the scope of this document, it must be noted that quantifying daily productivity levels on the scale of the cropping systems includes produce that have been sold as well as used for home consumption.…”

Analysis and Diagnosis of the Agrarian System in the Niayes Region, Northwest Senegal (West Africa)

“…To address these objectives, this study has adopted as a theoretical reference the concept of the "Agrarian System" developed at the French Agricultural Research National Institute, Agrarians Systems and Development Department (INRA-SAD) [2][3][4]. This holistic methodology has been used to describe many situations in world agriculture but not in the Niayes [5].…”

“…"Agrarian System analysis and diagnosis" is the survey method related to the concept of an agrarian system [3,4]. It is an all-encompassing methodology, combining different levels of analysis and therefore capable of making sense of agricultural activities operated by farmers within a given agricultural district, in a way that accounts for both ecological and socioeconomic dimensions.…”

“…It is an all-encompassing methodology, combining different levels of analysis and therefore capable of making sense of agricultural activities operated by farmers within a given agricultural district, in a way that accounts for both ecological and socioeconomic dimensions. This holistic approach aims at describing farmers' social and economic practices and techniques and at understanding the phenomena that influence them [4,6]. It also allows for evaluating the sustainability of a region's agriculture and collecting all elements for future transformations and forecasting, with or without any project-like intervention.…”

“…The data collection has been organized at different scales from the general level (national situation) to the particular (region, then farms, plots and/or herds) following an iterative analysis-synthesis process. This process obeys the methodology of comparative agriculture, which "favours the usage of a telescopic change of scale, particularly between the three levels of analysis privileged by us, i.e., that of the plot or herd for examining practices, that of the production unit or farm for integrating different cropping and livestock systems, and that of the (more or less vast) region or country for the pertinent application of the agrarian system concept" [3,4]. Understanding the differentiation of previous agrarian systems is an essential step to understanding the dynamics of the production system currently under survey.…”