ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines farmers' own rationales for their shift from a largely subsistence-oriented farming system centered on production of staple foodgrains to a more heavily cash-crop economy based on cotton. The many incentives to cash-crop cotton and the corresponding disincentives to commercially market cereal are further reinforced at the microlevel by a complex and pervasive array of sociocultural norms and concerns pertaining to grain disposals. Cotton money could be substituted for onerous cereal sales as a way of earning critical cash. In 1985, the head and livestock taxes formerly imposed on the country's rural population were lifted; school fees — another major cash outflow mentioned by farmers — were halved; the government increased producer prices for both cotton and cereal; and controls on private-sector trade in grain and other commodities were loosened. Along with the multiple cotton incentives and cereal disincentives discussed earlier, the cereal code of honor lent extra impetus to Dankui's adoption of commercial cotton cultivation.
