Farmers

1
Farmers Groups Access to Land for UA in Bamako,
Mali

• By
• Andres Velez-Guerra
• Cities Feeding People
• ACGA 25th Annual Conference
• 1 October, 2004

2
Structure of Presentation

• Background Research objectives, Mali overview,
  UA in Bamako
• Characteristics of farmers groups
• Means of access
• Women, Migrants and Access to Land
• Governmental Response
• Conclusions Recommendations

3
Research Objectives

• Strategies used by farmers organizations to
  access land
• Municipal policy environment, programmes and
  actions
• Options to improve land delivery systems

4
Rationale Definitions

• Customary Law
• Statutory Law
• Why Mali?
• 1st study on farmers orgs in Bamako

5
Republic of Mali (1960)

• HDI 174 in 2002
• Pop. 12 m
• Religion Muslim (90)
• LanguageFrench (official), Bambara (80)

6
UA and Bamako

• Population Bamako 1,236,479
• gt 50 of pop younger than 20 yrs old
• 14,000 farmers in the city (1995).
• Around 22 farmers groups

7
Spatial Distribution of Regimes

• Statutory Law
• Intra-urban (expanding). Farmers being evicted.
• Hybrid Land Law
• Suburbs. Customary and/or Statutory law. Farmers
  being threatened to go out of the city.
• Customary Law
• Main land regulatory system in most African
  countries. (Peri-urban and rural more than
  urban).

8
Characteristics of Farmers Orgs.

• Land issues Evictions (landowners), threats
  (planners), uncertainty, loss of livelihoods
• Formality land tenure is informal , but farmers
  orgs. are formal.
• Farmers organization and political involvement
  decreases towards the periphery.

Farming in Downtown. Farmers Group Yiriwaton
9
Characteristics of Farmers Orgs.

• Security of tenure increases towards periphery.
• Urban farmers are older, more established in the
  business and better off than farmers in the
  peripheries.
• Migrants join UA in the suburbs through social
  relations.

10
Characteristics of Farmers Orgs.

• Groups are helping individual farmers to access
  land (informally and formally).
• Security of tenure is not a pre-requisite for
  farmers org.
• Members have access to credit with the group
• The groups take cases of eviction without
  compensation to court

Cooperative Dyen Te Don.
11
Means of Access
12
Migrants, Women and Access to Land

• Migrants can join urban farmers groups
• There are non-residents in the urban
  cooperatives, but none in the peri-urban group
• Access to land in peri-urban areas is based on
  kinship, this is less so as one approaches the
  downtown area.
• Womens land rights decrease with distance from
  downtown

13
Governmental Response

• The Official Plan of Bamako includes UA
• Planners have a negative perception of UA
• No programmes to protect farmers from evictions
  or recognize their farming activities
• The government plans to give 100ha in the
  peripheries to farmers organizations under a
  lease
• No NGOs-Farmers Org. partnerships

14
Conclusion Recommendations

• The State to give farmers access to lands for UA
  under land titles or leases
• Create a legal document called title of
  exploitation
• Create a federation of farmers orgs.
• Create a land management plan through a
  participatory process
• Empower farmers to influence political decisions
  regarding land (Lobbying)

15
Thank you. Merci. Gracias.
Dyen Te Don. Woman farming