Publication: At the Crossroads of Power: A Farmers' Organization Confronted with Resource Management

In Lower Casamance, as early as the 1980s, a farmers’ organization began seeking solutions to the severe ecological and livelihood crisis that was undermining production systems. This book presents an in-depth study of the work of an inter-village local development organization, the Fogny Development Action Committee. The farmers’ organization undertook to rehabilitate rice farming in degraded areas and, to do so, engaged with various categories of stakeholders. Through negotiations with traditional, administrative, and political authorities—as well as those imposed by external supervisory bodies—the organization expressed a collective will, gave a voice to marginalized groups, and developed its own capabilities. The study of this associative dynamic invites an analysis of the technical and institutional innovations that enable the sustainable management of natural resources and, more broadly, a reflection on the drivers of development and social change in a rural African society.