Niger, a landlocked former French colony in the heart of west Africa, is a rich ensemble of African societies struggling to survive as a new nation in one of the world's most difficult ecological regions-the Sahel. Dr, Charlick sketches the emergence and history of Niger, showing how its component societies were influenced by changes in the physica

Anthropology and Rural Development in West Africa documents the experiences of anthropologists with development in West Africa during the past ten years. It presents case study material to bring out the actual and potential contributions of social science to solving development problems found in Africa and in other parts of the Third World. The book is not a manual that seeks to present solutions; rather it describes some of the kinds of development situations in which anthropologists participated and examines the kind of tensions under which they operated.

In Mali and throughout the Sahel, governments increasingly rely on parastatal organizations to overcome the problems of lagging food production and rural poverty. This book examines the political and economic consequences of the efforts of one organization, Operation Riz-Segou in Mali, to increase smallholder food and cash crop production. Drawing extensively on fieldwork in Mali, the author finds that significant investments in irrigation facilities, financed by foreign aid, have not reduced the smallholder's vulnerability to the risks posed by weather and uncertain flood levels of the Niger River. The extension system discourages smallholder investment for long-term agricultural development because of its preoccupation with supervision and administrative control. Moreover, the Operation engages in many popular rural development activities—literacy programs, farmer training, women's artisanal centers—that give the facade of grassroots participation but in reality do not provide villagers a critically needed voice in local program administration. Comparing Operation Riz-Segou to similar parastatal agricultural development programs in the Sahel, Dr. Bingen discusses why only those policies deliberately designed and carefully implemented to share power with the majority of the people can lay the political and economic foundation required to overcome rural poverty and resolve the food crisis in the Sahel.

This book embodies work stretching over a fifteen year period. As a result· inevitably we are greatly indebted to a number of institutions and a large number of individuals. Over the years considerable administrative and financial help was provided by the Institute for Agricultural Research, Ahmadu Bello University, the Ministries of Agriculture and Natural Resources in the northern states of Nigeria, the Ford Foundation, and more recently, Kansas State University.

The framework; Methodology; External Institutions; Community norms, structures and beliefs; Labor; Capital, cash and credit; Goals and management;Crop processes; Off-farm employment; Level of living and inequality of income distribution;