Weeding Out Failed Practices: A Case Study of Community Gardens in Rural Mali

Keywords

Community Gardens, Human Ecology, Ecology in Mali

Abstract

The World Bank estimates that 78% of economically active women in Mali are engaged in agricultural activities (Spurling, 1995). Consequently, women are challenged as much as men by recent changes that have resulted in diminished agricultural yield (International Fund for Agricultural Development [IFAD], 2001). Importantly, this situation has increased male migration to urban centers to find alternative work, making women’s roles in production essential to household and community survival. Attempting to ensure food sufficiency, women supplement family earnings through small-scale income-generating activities such as the production of charcoal, the processing of shea butter, and market gardening. In his study on Mali, Becker (2000) found that revenue from own-account activities, including gardening, are essential to food security and most critical for women whose access to labor and insecure land tenure were most volatile

Original Publication Citation

Weeding out Failed Practices: A Case of Study of Community Gardens in Rural Mali, Bonnie Ballif-Spanvill, Addie Fuhriman, Yodit Solomon, Carol Ward and Kacey Widdison-Jones, Human Ecology, Vol. 32 no. 4, August (2004): 509-521

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2004-8

Permanent URL

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/5653

Publisher

Human Ecology

Language

English

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Sociology

University Standing at Time of Publication

Associate Professor

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