Le développement agricole du sud-mali face au désengagement de l'état

Abstract

The Malian Textile Development Company (CMDT), with a view towards privatization in 2008, has for a few years now been refocusing its attention solely on the upstream activities of the cotton sector. However, the major changes that agriculture in south Mali has undergone over recent decades show that it is prudent to have several functions covered by the company: agricultural credit has made the implementation of a veritable agricultural revolution possible (slash-and- burn farming giving way to continuous far-ming thanks to close collaboration with livestock raising); new possibilities have made it possible for some farms to begin growing new marketable crops. Recent evolutions thus raise the question concerning who should provide public service functions (financing, infrastructure maintenance, natural resource management...) that the CMDT is preparing to let go. Farmers still have many needs in this area and it is doubtful that the private sector or producers' associations alone will be able to meet these needs. The Malian Textile Development Company (CMDT), with a view towards privatization in 2008, has for a few years now been refocusing its attention solely on the upstream activities of the cotton sector. However, the major changes that agriculture in south Mali has undergone over recent decades show that it is prudent to have several functions covered by the company: agricultural credit has made the implementation of a veritable agricultural revolution possible (slash-and-burn farming giving way to continuous far-ming thanks to close collaboration with livestock raising); new possibilities have made it possible for some farms to begin growing new marketable crops. Recent evolutions thus raise the question concerning who should provide public service functions (financing, infrastructure maintenance, natural resource management...) that the CMDT is preparing to let go. Farmers still have many needs in this area and it is doubtful that the private sector or producers' associations alone will be able to meet these needs.