Sociology of pastoralism and African livestock projects

This paper analyzes the sociological and ecological assumptions which underlie A.I.D. interventions in the West African livestock sector. Against a background portrait of the African herdsman, A.I.D. sector interventions in the region (infrastructure improvements, replication of western commercial production systems, and organizational innovations) are identified and critically reviewed in terms of the problems of desertification and mixed farming, range tenure, pastoral offtake, mobility, herd management, and the role of women. The author faults A.I.D. projects for ignoring the social and ecological realities governing African pastoral life. He stresses the fact that pastoralist behavior is a logical outgrowth of past involvement with the Sahel environment. Development efforts which impinge on mobility or threaten the herd's ability to support a large number of persons will be resisted. "Top-down" approaches that ignore the highly individualistic nature of West African herdsmen are likely to meet with failure. In line with the work of other anthropologists and social scientists, the author notes the following functional relationships between herdsmen and herding conditions which should be safeguarded in livestock interventions: (1) Due to the variability of semiarid grazing conditions, mobility is often necessary for survival. (2) Pastoralists recognize claims existing on land and water use and their movement is constrained by those claims. (3) Pastoralists seek to increase and maintain the size of their herds because of the many and different benefits deriving therefrom. (4) Despite the desire to increase herd size, there are managerial constraints on the number of animals maintainable under the direct control of a single herding unit. Expansion beyond that point leads to diminishing returns, reflected in an increase in disease, predation, theft, runaways, and watering costs. A 108-item list of French and English references cited (1939-78) is appended.