OXEN CULTIVATION IN SEMIARID WEST-AFRICA - PROFITABILITY ANALYSIS IN MALI

The profitability of animal traction technologies in semi-arid West Africa continues to generate much debate. The specific objective of this paper is to determine the profitability of, and the constraints to the adoption of, oxen traction technologies on smallholder farms in South-West Mali. A farm-level programming model of a representative smallholder farm was used to determine farm level adoption patterns, the impacts and the constraints to the adoption of alternative combinations of oxen traction technologies (i.e. oxen with plough and oxen with plough and weeder). The cropping system scenarios under which oxen tillage technologies are profitable for farmers in this zone are derived. Financial analysis of the multi-year net cash flows from adopting the oxen, plough and weeder technical package was performed. Modelling results show that the complete oxen-plough-weeder technology is financially profitable for farmers in the zone, but its profitability by being conditional on the expansion of peanut (cash crop) area requires structural changes in the product markets to allow farmers the opportunity to expand and market their output.