ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the transformation of a rural economy based largely on subsistence production to one increasingly based on commodity production, and explores relationships between rural socioeconomic differentiation and environmental degradation. It provides an analytical description of production systems on the New Haifa Agricultural Production Scheme at the household, community, and regional levels, including materials on land and wealth accumulation, increased social differentiation, and economic diversification. The chapter suggests that although diversification is a strategy common to all tenants, the poor are obliged to diversify to provide an adequate subsistence, while the more affluent elect to diversify to increase profit. It considers rehabilitation efforts, currently being undertaken on the Scheme with World Bank funding, that call for the production of fodder and livestock rather than the current cotton, groundnuts, and wheat rotation. The chapter focuses on the relationships between land and wealth accumulation and the progressive deterioration of the Scheme in terms of environment and productivity.
