ABSTRACT

Among the many elements influencing the way Sahelian societies manage their environment, economic factors are as important as, for example, demographic ones. In fact, the history of the Sahel reveals that economic determinants have had a direct impact on the functional mechanisms of agrarian systems and therefore on the way in which rural communities use space. The introduction and spread of commercial agriculture (groundnuts and cotton) during the colonial period and then later the emphasis on subsistence crops after the drought of 1973-4, by way of the major rural development projects and hydro-agricultural schemes, brought about specific peasant responses. These responses have illustrated how external economic change can disrupt the relations between local societies and their environment.