Risk and uncertainty dominate life in the semiarid tropics where most of the world's pastoralists live. Scientific approaches to risk in semiarid zones have been dominated by agroecology and... Show moreRisk and uncertainty dominate life in the semiarid tropics where most of the world's pastoralists live. Scientific approaches to risk in semiarid zones have been dominated by agroecology and agroeconomics. Within these paradigms risk is treated as a stochastic occurrence, and decisionmaking strategies are analysed with the help of simulation models, which are based on assumptions from rational choice decisionmaking theory, and presume that people are either geared towards profit maximization or towards risk minimization. The author shows that this approach is too narrow, because people operate not only in an ecological and economic environment, but also in social and cultural environments. He argues that an understanding of individual behaviour and cultural dynamics in high risk environments may be furthered by treating risk and uncertainty as total events, i.e. that more can be learned by tracing the consequences of single events across space and time, as well as the tracks people follow to deal with calamities. The argument is illustrated by a case study of Riimaybe cultivators and Fulbe herdsmen in an agropastoral community in the centre of the Niger Bend, central Mali. Fieldwork was carried out in the area in 1990-1992. Bibliogr., notes, sum. in French and Spanish Show less
This paper focuses on the interaction of the cultivation of cereals and the keeping of livestock among the Fulbe in a dryland region in central Mali in the district of Douentza. This interaction is... Show moreThis paper focuses on the interaction of the cultivation of cereals and the keeping of livestock among the Fulbe in a dryland region in central Mali in the district of Douentza. This interaction is shown to be crucial for understanding the impact of variable ecological conditions, notably the Sahelian droughts of the 1970s and 1980s, on the land use strategies of the Fulbe and their former slaves, nowadays labelled Riimaybe. There are not only physical interactions between livestock keeping and cereal cultivation in the form of flows of manure and crop residues, but also institutional and social interactions. The institutional interactions take the form of land tenure arrangements which allow people to make efficient use of soil fertility and agricultural production and appropriate the manure produced by their own livestock, and which also permit the careful spacing and timing of herding and cultivation. In times of crisis the cultivation of cereals becomes the most important means of survival. In principle, temporary cultivation would allow people to rebuild their herds, and reenter the pastoral economy after some time. However, the combined effects of droughts and changes in resource tenure have had a disastrous effect on the productivity of the land use system. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in French and Spanish. Show less
