By RICHARD SITLER
Indiana Correspondent

KOUORO, Mali — As their ancestors have for centuries, Muslims in this area of Africa will celebrate the Islamic holiday of Tabaski by sacrificing a sheep. This is one of the reasons that Aboulaye Sogodogo raises sheep.

Tabaski commemorates the story of Abraham, which is chronicled in the Bible, the Torah and the Koran. For Sogodogo and approximately 700 other residents of the small village of Kouoro, life hasn’t changed much since those ancient texts were written.
Kouoro is comprised of mud dwellings; the village has no electricity, and the residents share water from wells. The people are mainly subsistence farmers as are the majority of people in the West African country of Mali.

According to the Bradt Mali Guide by Ross Velton, Mali is among the poorest countries of the world. Desert or semi-desert conditions cover 65 percent of its land. Agriculture accounts for 45 percent of the country’s economy, and more than 80 percent of its population are engaged in subsistence agriculture, cultivating millet, sorghum, rice, corn and, to a lesser extent, potatoes, yams and cassava, to meet their own needs.

Kouoro is in the northern half of the Sikasso region in Mali, and it has a Sahelian climate.

For seven months of the year it is hot and dry. During this dry period, there is no rain at all. The rainy season, which enables people to grow crops, is from June to October.

The Bradt Mali Guide said the southern region of Sikasso is Mali’s “bread basket.” The southern region is the greenest area of the country. Although there isn’t a large river to irrigate, the higher rainfall and humidity makes the land rich and fertile during the rainy season.

Average Malian farmer

Sogodogo is about 29; most here rarely know their actual ages. He is married and has an infant daughter. Sogodogo started working in the fields with his father around the age of nine.

The crops he grows to support his family as well as some extended family members are cotton, corn, sorghum, millet, rice, peanuts, soy and dry beans. Most of the crops, besides cotton, are for their own consumption.

Sorghum, millet and corn are the staples of their diet. Rice is considered special and is mostly eaten on holidays or special occasions.

The cotton is grown, harvested and sold collectively as a village. It is sold to the Malian Company for textile development in the city of Koutiala. Some of the money from the sale of cotton goes to fund community needs, such as infrastructure and development projects.
Sogodogo sells some of his crops in a market located in Barrage, a community that is about 13 kilometers from Kouoro. The items are transported by a donkey cart. The crops he sells - instead of eating - help pay for herbicides.

The Bradt Mali Guide reported that until the mid-1960s, Mali was self-sufficient in its staple crops. However, a combination of restrictive agriculture policies and drought made the country increasingly dependent of food imports and handouts. A return to food self-sufficiency was made a government priority in the 1970s, and agricultural reforms and adequate rainfall boosted the production of subsistence crops in the late 1980s.

By 1990, food self-sufficiency was restored. The main export crops are cotton, rice, groundnuts and - to a lesser extent - sugar cane, tobacco and tea.

The most productive agricultural area is along the banks of the River Niger between Bamako and Mopti and extends south into the region of Sikasso. Most of the country’s rice is produced in the region of Segou.

Livestock is important

According to the Bradt Mali Guide, 10 percent of the population is nomadic; and therefore, livestock is important.

With the exception of Nigeria, no other country in western Africa raises as many goats, sheep and cattle.

Sogodogo has 23 cows, which are raised for milk and also used to plow fields. Cows are valuable, so farmers in Mali usually don’t slaughter and eat cattle.

If there is an emergency, such as a medical crisis, then the cows can be sold to raise money. Sheep, as mentioned before, are raised for ceremony purposes, and also are sometimes sold to raise money. Poultry, both chickens and Guinea fowl, is raised to sell and sometimes eat, but the eggs are not eaten.

Sogodogo said Malian farmers do not have enough chemical fertilizers to improve crop yields, and they don’t have equipment to apply herbicides. The irregularity of sufficient rain is also a problem. During the dry season, there isn’t enough feed for the cattle, and that is when they are needed to plow the fields.

Despite the challenges, Sogodogo gives several reasons why he enjoys being a farmer. First, it is what his father did. Second, he said, farmers who work hard have enough crops to sell and enough to eat.  Lastly, Sogodogo likes to be his own boss; as he put it, “I’m not a slave to anyone.”

He likes that he can provide for himself and for his family.
Sogodogo said farmers are the backbone of Mali, and Africa cannot develop without enough farmers who support those who are in non-labor jobs.

Mali is also vulnerable to environmental shocks. In 2005, swarms of locusts invaded the regions of Timbuktu, Gao and Kayes. This had a catastrophic effect on food production as well as agricultural exports and rural incomes. Droughts and flooding also remain a continual threat.

Ben Arnold and Audra Helser acted as translators for Aboulaye Sogodogo. The interview was conducted in Bambara (an African language) and French.