Agriculture

Case study: Subsistence farming by the women in the village of Piela

Farming in Piela is almost the only way of earning a living! The families have to cultivate the soil, plant and grow the millet seeds, harvest and store the crop to have "To" (pronounced “toe”), the staple diet to eat every day.

In rural areas some 92% of the working community are engaged in agriculture, compared with only 2.2 % in the United Kingdom. Even in Cumbria, often referred to as an "Agricultural" County only 5% of the working population is engaged in agriculture, forestry and fishing.

A dawn morning in July. Following heavy rainfall the previous night the women and children are setting off from the village to work on their family plot of land.

The family plot ranges in size from 2 to 5 ha and is assigned to the male head of the family by the village chief or leader. The man then allocates a small area of this, usually about 1000 - 5000 sq.m. to his wife or each of his wives.

Family plots may be farmed to produce a cash crop, (crops which are grown to sell) or as in Piela, used to grow cereals such as millet, which the family will eat all year round.

Piela lies within the Sudano-Sahelian climatic zone, which covers the whole of the central region and is the largest climatic region in Burkina Faso (half of the countries surface area). The wet season lasts four to five months between May and September during which time 600 to 900 mm of rain may fall. July and August are the wettest months, but heavy showers (over 60 mm) accompanied by strong gusts of wind occur during the rest of the wet season. The people of Piela depend upon the seasonal rainfall. If the rains fail, or if it is light and irregular the crops will fail and the people will face starvation.

The rainfall is unreliable. After heavy rainfall early in the wet season the women may plant the seeds that may then whither and die under the hot sun and lack of further rainfall. It is not unknown for the women to have to replant the crops two or three times as the rains fail.

Rainfall is often very heavy and may wash away roads and cause serious soil erosion.

Severely eroded land near Piela.

An older women and a young girl prepare the seeds for sowing.

On her "individual" plot, each wife produces food for her husband, her children and herself. If the family's staple cereals are being grown on the family plot, she will be responsible for growing vegetables, pulses, groundnuts, etc. to eat with them. She may be able to grow crops for sale, but only to a very limited extent.

Crops such as gourds, millet, herbs and leaves are sold in the market. Women may "add value" to the crops they have grown by using leaves and herbs to prepare sauces and cook dishes based on cereals such as millet, sweet corn and rice.

The women have to look after the family plot first. They can only work on their individual plots very early in the morning or when their husbands free them in the afternoon or evening, after the day's work on the family plot is complete.

Cultivation is easier where ploughs are used.

In some communities families share a single furrow plough, which, if they can afford it, will be pulled by an ox. Poorer communities use a donkey. However the use of draft animals is the exception as most communities are too poor. A woman's group stated, " Animal traction makes the difference between night and day"

As the seeds germinate and grow, careful hoeing and weeding are essential if the planets are to survive. It is agreed that hoeing and weeding are the hardest and most time-consuming jobs that women do on the land.

The millet is harvested and stored in the dry pest free stores.

In the past there were clear destinations between what was considered men's work and women's work in agriculture. Men did ploughing and cultivating the land prior to planting. The women and children were then involved with hand planting. All the hoeing to control weeds and most of the harvesting operations were traditionally done by women.

Women planting seeds on the family plot.

Women and children cultivate the soil using short handled hoes. Although most people live on the central plateau the conditions are so difficult that few farmers can rise above the level of hand hoe as the prime production tool. Blacksmiths, using generally poor quality scrap from motorcars, make almost all the hoes. The pioche (pick) is similar to a tiny hoe, with a very short handle and a narrow blade (about 4-5 cm wide).

The blacksmith in Piela also makes single furrow ploughs.

Women may also buy kids or lambs and rear them through to market weight. A major problem is having the money to buy the animal in the first place. In Piela and some of the local villages, "The Association for the Promotion of Self Help", ASAP, a local self-help scheme is enabling the women to buy lambs and kids by making loans of money available. Here is not enough fodder to allow breeding of the animals nearby.

The women of Bilem Perga with sheep and goats which they have bought through the loan scheme established by St. Aidan's school Carlisle.

Each woman may borrow up to £10. They and their children look after the livestock

When the goats are big enough they are sold.

The end product. The women sell the livestock, repay the loan and reinvest any profit. The money repaid enables more women to take part in the scheme.