Sahelian 'white gold' and rural poverty-environment interactions: The political ecology of cotton production, environmental change, and household food economy in Mali

The belief that the poor and hungry will often destroy their immediate environment in order to survive, and that this group is most directly affected by environmental change, is pervasive in the development, economics and geography literatures. This dissertation examines this hypothesis, as well as how cotton, or ‘white gold,’ production has influenced the rural poverty-environment dynamic in the Sahelian nation of Mali. The study pays particular attention to the proximate and ultimate causes of soil degradation, to the interactions between the food economies of relatively rich and poor households, and to the links between national policy and local production strategies. The author reports that the vulnerability of the wealthy has been affected more greatly by environmental change than that of the poor over the past 15 to 20 years. The two major components of vulnerability, exposure to shocks and ability to recover, have both been eroded. It was also found that soil quality measures on the farms of the rich and the poor are not significantly different, refuting the conventional wisdom that the wealthy are better managers of the environment. Finally, a variety of environmentally deleterious cultivation practices were associated with export-oriented cotton production, an activity more vigorously pursued by wealthy than poor farmers. The focus on poverty in international environment and development discourse has allowed the Government of Mali, which depends on cotton for nearly 50% of its revenues, to avoid a serious debate on the sustainability of cotton production. The dissertation’s findings are based on household interviews describing past and present food economies, a simulation of household vulnerability in face of crop failure, discussions with donors and national policy makers, an assessment of remotely-sensed vegetation trends, and an analysis of agricultural soil quality measures (infiltration, bulk density, pH and aggregate stability) for relatively rich and poor farmers. (Author's Abstract)