Integration into International Markets of Cotton Family Farms in Mali

Effects of the COVID-19 induced cotton crisis on agricultural production and livelihoods of smallholders in southern Mali

“…For both the net crop income and livestock revenues, the costs of (family and hired) labour were excluded from the computation, as disaggregated labour data per operation (e.g., weeding) and per crop (e.g., cotton) were not collected due to time and financial resource limitations. Also, labour costs were not accounted for because the share of hired labour in the total labour is marginal (Coulibaly, 2011;Soumaré et al, 2018), while deducting the cost of family labour in this context of semi-subsistence farming would result in underestimated income for people that relied on their own labour for their income needs. Also, our calculation did not include the depreciation cost of machines.…”

“…The apparent robustness of the farming system in 2020-21 can be explained by the elimination of otherwise strong labour competition between cotton and cereal crops (i.e., millet and sorghum), favourable weather conditions and farmers' responsive coping with the cotton crisis. In the earlier multi-year cotton crisis, from 2004-05 to 2008-09, farmers mitigated the reduced access to cotton income through sales of livestock and off-farm activities including sales of forest products (timber and charcoal), small business and remittances from migrants (Droy et al, 2012;Soumaré et al, 2018). Soumaré et al (2018) reported that many farms sold productive assets, such as oxen, to mitigate the consequence of the multi-year cotton crisis.…”

“…In the earlier multi-year cotton crisis, from 2004-05 to 2008-09, farmers mitigated the reduced access to cotton income through sales of livestock and off-farm activities including sales of forest products (timber and charcoal), small business and remittances from migrants (Droy et al, 2012;Soumaré et al, 2018). Soumaré et al (2018) reported that many farms sold productive assets, such as oxen, to mitigate the consequence of the multi-year cotton crisis. The ability to sell assets contributes to system robustness, but undermines the system's adaptability and capacity to maintain resilience in the long-term (Darnhofer, 2014;Urruty et al, 2016).…”

“…The ability to sell assets contributes to system robustness, but undermines the system's adaptability and capacity to maintain resilience in the long-term (Darnhofer, 2014;Urruty et al, 2016). The income reduction during the multi-year cotton crisis weakened the cohesion of some large farm households due to disagreement among the members about the income management (Soumaré et al, 2018). This situation led to certain high resource endowed farms, such as HRE-(LH), to split into two or more new farms with limited productive assets (e.g., LRE farms).…”