Uaina four veare of household data from three aoroecoloaical tones in Burkina Faeo --Sahelian. Sudanian. and Guii:oan -the paper examines the determinants and effects of household income diversification. Harvest shortfalls and terms of trade are found to drive diversification, but land constraints do not. Income diversification is associated with higher incomes and food consumption, and more at able income and consumption over years.

The paper examines strategies used by rural households in the Sahelian and Sudanian zones of Burkina Faso to ensure food security in the face of drought-induced cropping shortfalls. It finds that three-quarters of the average household income in the Sahel sample and half of the same in the Sudanian sample come from non-cropping sources. These are more diversified regionally and sectorally in the case of the Sahel. The latter's non-cropping income is less covariant with the local cereal economy than is the case in the Sudanian sample. Moreover, much greater food aid was targeted to the Sahel for geographical reasons, without taking into account the more stable and higher level of purchasing power in that zone visa -vis the Sudanian zone.

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Farmers in West Africa's semi‐arid tropics have been slow to adopt animal draft power to replace manual cultivation, defying the logic of conventional choice‐of‐technique analyses. This paper demonstrates that farmers can profitably adopt animal draft power when household characteristics and exogenous factors permit high utilization of animals and equipment. Empirical analysis of farm‐level data indicates that low utilization is the key cause of low returns, and that a long learning period precedes achieving high utilization and benefits. Linear programming models are used to establish the importance of family size, access to land, and appropriate implements in achieving profitable adoption.

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