The farming landscape
This chapter describes the patterns of land use and the soils, vegetation, and landscape of Dlonguébougou. Climate change has brought greater concentration and intensity of rainfall, and farmers must cope with high variability. Millet is at the heart of the farming system, and sesame has become an important cash crop. While many young people go away on migration each year, the majority come back for 3 months to help their families at the height of the cultivation season. Increased pressure on land attributable to the spread of cultivation, scarcer quantities of manure for maintaining soil fertility, and the shift of labour from collective household activities to private farming of sesame have all led to a large fall in millet yields since 1980–1982.