Suchergebnisse

Résumé Cet article étudie l'impact sur les jeunes des récentes évolutions structurelles de l'agriculture au Ghana. Il soutient que la place des jeunes dans l'économie de plantation actuelle ne peut être comprise que moyennant une analyse historique portant à la fois sur l'intégration de l'agriculture dans l'économie mondiale et les diverses alliances politiques ménagées par les autorités coloniales pour parvenir à administrer le monde rural et contrôler la main d'œuvre. Le colonisateur avait chargé les anciens et les chefs du contrôle de la terre et la jeunesse. Ce système fonctionna correctement dans un climat expansionniste soutenant un système de défrichement de nouvelles terres. Mais le ralentissement de l'économie, la raréfaction des terrains à cultiver et la différenciation sociale accrue ont aggravé la crise et l'agitation de la jeunesse. Aujourd'hui, les forces du marché ne favorisent pas une exploitation de type familial étendu. Le mode d'exploitation agricole se trouve de plus en plus atomistique. Les transactions portant sur le terre et la main d'œuvre se font de plus en plus entre individus, parfois même au sein d'une même famille.

The analytical abstracts deal with conceptual and general methodological issues in participatory research and examine their practical application in diagnosis, on-farm experimentation and dissemination of agricultural technology. A final section examines efforts to design strategies along more participatory lines

Abstract
This article examines the role of financial capital in the cocoa industry of Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana. It argues that the processes of structural adjustment in the 1980s and 1990s brought two important elements into play. Firstly, transnational corporations taking advantage of the opening of global markets to gain control over the cocoa sector, and secondly, financial institutions promoting 'country platforms' that encouraged public–private partnerships to mobilize foreign investments and define development objectives. This has led to a distinct pattern of investment, which is intimately connected with governance reforms underpinned by a diverse set of public and private alliances at different levels. The article traces these alliances which have given rise to community development programmes. However, these programmes are underpinned by a drive towards greater intensification of production through the use of inputs supported by credit, which threatens to entangle farmers in debt and lock them into the poverty inherent in the cocoa industry.

Agricultural development policies and analyses have sought to reduce direct state intervention in order to promote free markets, yet rarely investigate the nature of African agribusiness and commodity markets. West African history shows a pattern of forest rents, frontier colonisation, boom and bust cycles and limited scope for diversifying production. Food markets present some opportunities, but are also characterised by unequal power in production and exchange. State decline has left farmers to obtain technical inputs from private agribusinesses, but often on poor terms that heighten inequality and insecurity. (IDS Bull/DÜI)