Teeken, B.W.E.; Okry, F.; Mokuwa, A.G.; Termudo, M.; Struik, P.C.; Richards, P.
Abstract
Rice breeding and crop research predominantly emphasize adaptation
to ecological conditions, giving little attention to the ways local
social organization and structure shape rice varieties and their
dissemination. In this paper, we present how, next to ecological
factors, socioeconomic factors, cultural norms, values, and narratives
shape the use and development of local technologies related to the
cultivation of African rice (Oryza glaberrima Steud.) in seven West
African countries (Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Senegal, Sierra Leone,
The Gambia, and Togo). From 2000 to 2008, data were collected using
questionnaires, interviews, focus group discussions, field observations,
molecular analysis, and on-farm field trials. The findings show that a
complex of cultural factors, in combination with ecological and genetic
factors, maintained, reduced, or increased the cultivation of African
rice. Along the Upper Guinea Coast, the role of African rice was somehow
comparable across different ethnic groups, whereas its role was largely
diverse in the Togo hills. Findings suggest that the role of African
rice shapes the development of new promising farmer varieties as well as
the adoption of new modern varieties. These findings ask for the
recognition and validation of interactions between ecological, genetic,
socioeconomic, and cultural factors within farmer innovations systems,
including new emergent knowledge and technologies resulting from such
interactions. We argue that to improve the adoption of modern
technologies, we need to acknowledge that, in different regions,
societal organizations differ and we therefore need to integrate
socioeconomic and cultural factors into models of technology development
and dissemination.
