Crop-livestock interactions in the West African Drylands
Core message
Driven by population pressures on natural resources, peri-urban pastoralists in the Far North Province of Cameroon have recently intensified livestock production in their traditional pastoral system by feeding their cattle cottonseed cakes and other agricultural byproducts to cope with the disappearance of rangelands typically available through the dry season.
Although the crop–livestock interactions in this altered intensive pastoral system seem similar to alterations recently named in mixed-farming systems in West Africa, they are distinctly different and would require a different type of agricultural development support. I use Bourdieu’s theoretical constructs of “habitus” and “capital” to explain those differences.
Full citation
Powell, J.M., R.A. Pearson and P.H. Hiernaux. 2004. Crop-livestock interactions in the West African Drylands. Agronomy Journal 96: 469-483. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10460-009-9203-z