ABSTRACT
Autarky is often considered to be one of the major obstacles to rural change. The main problem is that technical innovations are designed in ways that do not necessarily correspond to prevailing patterns of autarky. Guinea Bissau has been linked to world market circuits for centuries. In simple commodity production, which is the dominant form of production in agriculture – in Guinea Bissau this is the only form – there will always be a specific balance between commodity and non-commodity relations. Rice is the main food-crop in Guinea Bissau; it is also, according to the political and economic circumstances, one of the main export crops. Rice traditionally was, and continues to be cultivated in bolanhas, tropical rice polders, which require a massive, well-organised and stable labour input. Commoditisation of the northern rural economy implied a basic transformation of rice: from being initially a commodity, at least partly, it was transformed into a mere subsistence product.
