In southern Mali and throughout the semiarid tropics, small-scale family farmers are faced with the challenge of producing adequate harvests in difficult biophysical and socioeconomic environments. Professional plant breeders have had much difficulty developing modern varieties that outperform farmers’ traditional varieties in these environments, in part because of an incomplete understanding of why farmers choose the varieties they grow. Improved understanding of farmers’ varietal choices can contribute to collaboration between farmers and formal plant breeders. Based on a 15-month field study in Dissan, Mali, we examine farmer's choices among their traditional sorghum varieties in terms of one or more than one variety, and short-cycle or long-cycle varieties, and the interaction between these two choices. Results support our general hypothesis that farmers choose varieties to optimize outputs in the face of variation in the growing environment and in human managed inputs such as labor and tools.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank the village of Dissan, especially the four apprenticeship households (Sumayila Sangare Ka So, Sedu Mama Ka So, Samba Sangare Ka So, and Bakari Jakite Ka So), and Siaka Sangare who collaborated in the 2001 and 2002 surverys; Eva Weltzein and Fred Rattunde of ICRISAT-Mali for generously sharing their knowledge, time, and resources; Eva Weltzein for comments on this paper and suggesting resources; the IIE Fulbright program and the Fletcher Jones Foundation of Los Angeles (SML), and the National Science Foundation (SES-9977996) (DAC, DS) for funding. Farmers whose names are used gave permission in compliance with the non-anonymous and non-sensitive UC Santa Barbara Human Subects Exemption.
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Lacy, S.M., Cleveland, D.A. & Soleri, D. Farmer Choice of Sorghum Varieties in Southern Mali. Hum Ecol 34, 331–353 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-006-9021-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-006-9021-5