ABSTRACT
In the cotton provinces of West Burkina Faso, exchanging land for money, which was once unthinkable, is now becoming common practice. Although customary land management principles do not condone this, some lineage chiefs cede family or lineage land holdings for good against payment in cash. Those who acquire the land can be other local peasants, migrants or indigenous, or investors living in town. Increasingly, they are also 'new actors' originating from outside the local communities, who have money earned in non-agricultural activities and who intend to farm using hired labour and mechanised equipment.
