ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the encadrement approach used by Operation Riz-Segou (ORS), with specific attention given to its role in defining a structure of power and privilege in the countryside. In Mali and throughout Africa, governments have concentrated on improving industrial and plantation crops in order to increase cash crop production for export. Quite simply, the demand for export crops has been the engine of agricultural research. The ORS technical package replaces the hardy, red rice varieties with higher yielding white rice varieties and a calendar of agricultural practices designed to improve the management of rice production practices rather than to introduce a new or Green Revolution crop production technology. Most of the Moniteurs have had little previous experience working in an agricultural development program, or specifically with rice. Several State policies intended to protect a range of State administrative, economic, and political interests prevent smallholders from receiving the benefits from the ORS agricultural services and supply program.
