The presentation summarizes results from a study of collective action in Mali. It provides context on agriculture and land rights in Mali. It then gives an overview of the regions, branches, and communities included in the study. The key results section analyzes findings on tiger nuts in Sikasso and groundnuts in Koulikoro, including production systems, organizations involved, and factors encouraging or discouraging collective action. Detailed analysis is presented on the main crops. The presentation concludes with recommendations for the next phase, including a focus on sustainable collective actions with strong women's participation.
7. Key results (Groundnuts, Koulikoro) Primary Producers Intermediaries Buyers Local market Traders Domestic and sub-regional consumers Co-operatives/ Women’s Associa-tions Kolokani circles Women engaged in value-adding processing Factors which encourage collective action by women Local market Consumers at the local level Factors which discourage women’s collective action Lack of support structures for this type of production Women are assigned infertile land No access to agricultural equipment when needed No organised market exists Lack of access to fast-growing (3 months) and high yield s eeds Weak ability to control prices to intermediaries/ buyers Existence of women’s groups offering rotating credit and/or savings and loans Groundnuts: a basic food Support for setting up savings and credit groups from the CAEB NGO in Kolokani Circle
8. Links between organisations: Rice, Sikasso Women’s network Teriya de Niena Cooperative ACOD Nyeta so CRA Agricultural sector COFRN T é gu éré ni group Female producers: Courageous and dedicated women Training Working capital, equipment Supply of inputs, Marketing Membership fee Operational support Advice support Training / Information Information exchange Membership fee Savings / Loans
9. Constraints Type of constraint Tiger nuts Rice Shea butter Sesame Millet/ sorghum Ground-nuts Limited access to means of production X X X X X Late payment of cash after sales X X Lack of working capital X X Lack of equipment for processing and difficulties of storage X X Merchants charge high prices for fertiliser X X Low crop yields X Lack of means and high cost of transport X X Weak negotiating power of women vis-à-vis intermediaries/traders X X X Illiteracy among women X X Drop in price at harvest time X X
10. Benefits Type of benefits/ Branch of production Groundnuts Millet/ Sorghum Sesame Shea butter Tiger nuts Rice Access to property ownership XX Access to inputs XXX XXX XXX XXX Access to equipment for production XXX Access to processing equipment XXX XXX Access to the market XXX XXX XXX XXX XX Savings/loans (by deposit and by rotation) XXX XXX X XXX X Increase in incomes (joint sales at profitable price) X XX XXX XXX XXX XX Improvement in social status XX XX XX XX XX XX Social cohesion XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX Strengthening of skills X X XXX XXX XX XX Investment (personal wealth) XX XX XX XX XX XX
12. Discussion of the main results Rice Shea butter Tiger nuts Groundnuts Millet/ Sorghum Sesame Types of collective action Mixed and women’s; formal and informal; non specialised; affiliated and not Mixed and women’s; specialised; affiliated and not Mixed, men’s and women’s; specialised; affiliated Non specialised; CAs mixed and women’s; formal and informal. Formal mixed and women’s affiliated to the unions; formal and informal non-affiliated. Predominance of mixed and women’s CAs specialised affiliated to the unions; some CAs not affiliated. Women’s roles Predominant in mixed CAs; men in the secretariat in women’s CAs Strong representation in mixed CAs; men in the secretariat in women’s CAs. Weak representation in mixed CAs. Not very active in mixed CAs; replacement of men by women in some women’s CAs. Not very active in mixed CAs; preference for women’s CAs (men in the secretariat) Not very active in mixed CAs (Banamba); men in the secretariat in women’s CAs. Production Individual or collective; income-generating activities Individual or collective. Internal savings/loan system; some CAs have external supported for specific purposes. PAM market Individual or collective; DERK/SNV support for affiliated women’s CAs
In Mali, about 70% of the population live in a rural environment and depend on agriculture, cattle-farming and fishing. Women constitute more than 50% of the total population and 78% of them live in a rural environment, producing more than 70% of total food production. They participate actively in agricultural work but have limited influence in the control of shared resources. However they have freedom to manage, like any other family member, the production on their individual plots. In many poor, rural households, women’s role in farming is often unrecognised and underestimated. In addition to their domestic work (cooking and looking after children), they are used as unpaid family labour working on preparing the soil, sowing, tending and harvesting the crops. In Mali, farms are essentially managed by the men. The number of farms managed by women is just 3% of the total number of farms even though they make up 70% of the people who work the land. The lands managed by women are generally those of widows or divorcees who are also responsible for children. The holdings managed by women are generally small plots: 54% are less than one hectare, as against 17% for men. The average area of plots managed by women is much smaller than that managed by men (0.5 ha as against 1.5 ha). Access to credit women 9%, men 22% Access to inputs: seeds F/M: 7%/21%, fertiliser 14%/31% Access to agricultural advice F/M: 29%/41%
See also the information in Table 6... To be completed. In Mali, tiger nuts are cultivated in the Sikasso region, more specifically in Sikasso and Kadiolo circles (production is geographically concentrated). The cultivation of tiger nuts, which used to be a women’s crop, now occupies third place behind cotton and potatoes as a source of income for the producers of this region. The production of tiger nuts was a women’s activity in contrast to cotton, which was reserved for men. With the strong demand for tiger nuts in external markets (Spain, Ghana, Liberia, Burkina Faso, Senegal) and the profit available from this product, men have taken up growing this crop, with the result that the area under cultivation has increased and the producers have formed cooperatives. Women (70%) are still dominant in its production compared to men (30%). Despite the low proportion of men, they are the larger producers because of their access to the means of production (land and agricultural equipment). Within households, in addition to their role in production, women also constitute the source of unpaid family labour for men for other production activities. The whole tiger nut chain of production is divided into three main links: production, processing and marketing. The structure of the chain makes marketing the responsibility of the cooperatives (collection and delivery to the union). Given their low level of involvement in responsible positions particularly in mixed cooperatives, women are poorly represented in the marketing activities of cooperatives, unions and exporters. Alongside this formal structure, women sell a significant part of their production at the various local markets to traders/intermediaries to meet their immediate needs. Processing, which has not yet developed very much, is performed exclusively by women. It was carried out in the form of collective actions by women, but as a result of constraints linked to the lack of equipment and the difficulty of preserving the product (juice), there are problems in growing processing. The tiger nut branch of production is structured around two unions: J é kafo and Nimpagati é . The CAs belonging to them are almost all formal cooperatives (76% mixed, 14% women’s and 10% men). The cooperatives take care of the production and collection of tiger nuts while the two unions ensure the supply of inputs and market research. Women are less well represented in responsible posts in mixed cooperatives, so they have less information about relationships with partners. Activities carried out collectively are those relating to the production of tiger nuts (shared fields and marketing). In addition to the activities in this type of production, the cooperatives carry out other activities such as providing agricultural services to earn cash and increase their financial resilience.
In contrast to the tiger nuts production chain, which is highly structured, with specialised groups and strong external demand, groundnuts are at the other extreme. For groundnuts, the CAs are both formal and informal, mixed and women-only. Collective action consists of: Either the joint production (and sale) of groundnuts or agricultural services to bring in cash to build up the collective savings and loans fund. Or the development of a savings and credit system based on individual contributions (earned from individual production and sale of groundnuts and/or other money-making activities) In Kolokani Circle, the majority of these CAs benefit from support from ACEB in developing savings and loans. There are no groundnut CAs as such. The CAs present in this production chain are mainly multi-functional women’s CAs. The savings and loans activities of these CAs enable the members to have funds available to reinvest in agricultural activities, one of these being growing groundnuts. Some of these CAs produce collectively, and fund their savings and loans accounts with the income from sales. The main factor limiting this collective production is the impossibility for women to get access when needed to the agricultural equipment (in the village). The main sales channels for the marketing of the raw product and the leaves (used for feeding cattle) are within the villages and/or at fairs to intermediaries/buyers for merchants based in Bamako. The processing of groundnuts into food ingredients (paste, powder, oil, cakes…) and into soap is carried out both in the villages and in the urban centres. The post-harvest work on groundnuts is fairly easy by comparison with other agricultural products (millet sorghum, sesame…); moreover, it is a basic foodstuff, which makes groundnuts the main crop for women. Women transform groundnuts into food ingredients (paste, powder...) for human and animal consumption and market them locally. For groundnuts, it is women producers who take care of marketing. The products are sold throughout the year, to buyers/intermediaries in the villages or at fairs. The buyers/intermediaries/merchants (who are for the most part men) buy and keep stocks to resell at a high mark-up at time of scarcity. The fact that this branch of production is not organised has a double consequence, that the women are exposed to fluctuations in prices and that they lack sufficient negotiating strength to influence the intermediaries/buyers. There is also a lack of support structures for this type of production. (other details on gender in Table on P. 32-33) For groundnut production, profits are low (no real support); it is above all the savings and loans activity (derived from a part of the income) that has enabled the women in the CAs to cover their daily expenses and above all to finance productive activities. The women invest these loans in their individual fields, in raising sheep, and in the stocking and marketing of cereals (millet/sorghum) and of groundnuts.
Explain Acronyms : COFRN, ACOD, CRA : And describe what organisations are. Slide based on Venn diagram created by participants in group discussions at (which commune, circle?) in the Sikasso region. Illustrates the various institutional links between - different types of collective actions (savings and loans, cooperatives, women’s network etc.) CAs and support structures (CRA, ACOD, COFRN etc.) It is fairly typical that a single CA will have many links and sources of support. Here fairly complementary. COFRN markets rice and supplies the inputs. ACOD provides working capital funds. And equipment with training, while there are also other sources of training and advice. But one has to wonder how sustainable this structure is?
The main constraint across the board – limited access to the means of production - common to all except shea butter (because of the nature of that production) Other constraints vary by type of production - for subsistence crops it is the lack of means of transport (rice, millet-sorghum) For export crops which depend on a restricted market – it is the lateness of payment (tiger nuts, shea butter) Falling prices at harvest time are a problem for millet/sorghum and groundnuts.
Various types of benefits – material and non-material For the most part, the existence and the scope of the benefit varies by type of production. Except for social cohesion – which is of high importance for all types of production. Others vary: is shea butter is the only one which facilitates access to property title? Only sesame offers access to production equipment. Linked to the types of intervention? Groundnuts: few benefits in terms of access to markets, income. Not surprising that it is the niche or non-traditional export products (sesame, shea butter, tiger nuts) which give greatest benefits in terms of access to the market and income? The type of production which seems to deliver the most benefits to women: shea butter. The least: groundnuts. A qualitative analysis of the main kinds of benefits by each type of production included in the study allows us to bring out several salient points: Benefits relating to increasing production and productivity are judged sizeable for all products except groundnuts . This is due to the specificity of the CAs engaged in this branch, where the production activity is essentially carried out individually by the members, and also because of the fact that it is mainly the savings and credit activity that sustains the existence of the CAs of this type of production. Grouped sales do not exist for groundnuts and only partly in rice. For the most part, rice produced by women is grown on small plots (rice-growing on low-lying ground) and is sold personally. Only a few women’s organisations practise collective production on irrigated areas (Niéna and Kléla) and sell as a group. The marked importance of sesame in making a contribution to family income, helping to grow women’s wealth and increase their social standing, by comparison with the other types of production (notably tiger nuts and shea butter) might be explained by: The size of the sesame market, its very high level of organisation and the income derived from it (women can individually earn between 250,000 and 500,000 FCFA/harvest).
Note that mixed organisations (dominated by men?) are very much to be found under access to inputs (above all) and marketing. Women’s groups are very well represented in the other links in the production chain.
This table reflects the main characteristics of the CAs by type of production. Two types of CA status (formal or informal) can be seen in all types of production. Those which are heavily commercialised like sesame and tiger nuts, the level of organisation is higher with cooperatives and unions, and indeed Federations. This might be explained by the need to meet the eligibility criteria for institutional loans, to meet the costs of larger-scale production and also the significant external support from which these branches benefit. In these cases, the CAs are mixed and the effective involvement of women in the governance of these organisations is relatively weak (owing perhaps to the significant amount of money at stake). Women’s CAs are mainly present in the production of shea butter, rice, millet/sorghum and groundnuts. According to the leaders of Fokolo, the CAs offer an opportunity to acquire experience in communications and staff management, so the limited number of literate women often constitutes a handicap to the autonomous functioning of these CAs. The savings and loans activity is a determining influence in keeping the CAs active in the poorly supported branches such as groundnuts and millet/sorghum.
There is an effective presence, to varying degrees, of collective actions and above all of women in all the links in the value chains of the different types of production. Nevertheless their presence is more marked in the branches which are more profitable and better structured like sesame, tiger nuts and shea butter. The predominance of women in certain branches (shea butter) and links in the value chain (processing): Major advances such as taking gender specificity into account at the national level (Agricultural Framework Law) and in the regional development programmes. There are constraints which prevent speeding up the creation of women’s collective actions to improve access to markets: lack of enforcement of political decisions, social pressures, the low level of literacy among women, the lack of capital equipment and of suitable infrastructures. Changing trends: the positive effects of some successful women’s collective actions help to break down some taboos : women’s access to property ownership, to the right to invest, improvement in the “official” involvement of women in debates and in public governance, acceptance of woman leaders.