ABSTRACT
Unlike many other West African countries, in Sierra Leone rice is the staple food crop. It is widely cultivated in most parts of the country under a variety of ecological conditions. This study analyzes the types of rice transactions of rice-farming households (n=372) in north-west Sierra Leone by studying their ‘Annual Rice Accounts’. An Annual Rice Account includes both the ways in which rice is obtained (sources) and the ways in which it is used and applied (uses). Several categories of operations and transactions are identified. They include subsistence operations (e.g. rice harvesting, rice consumption), social security transactions (e.g. giving rice as gifts), transactions compensating for resource use (e.g. rents in kind for the use of land or capital), and commercial transactions (e.g. sales or purchases of rice). Until now, little has been published about such transactions in this area.
Three types of rice-farming households are distinguished corresponding to the rice-farming system(s) they employ, and their geographical location: those in the upland area, those in the upstream area and those in the midstream area of the Great Scarcies River. Subsistence-oriented rice-farming households are mainly found in the upland area, whereas commercially-oriented households are primarily located in the upstream and midstream sections of the river. Finally, possible implications for decision makers regarding the institutional infrastructure in north-west Sierra Leone are discussed.
