College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics

Non-AFRE Co-Principle Investigators: Peter J Matlon, Study Director, AEC/AFRE Department. AEC Graduate Students: Merritt W. Sargent, John A. Lichte, and Roger Bloom

Project Name:           Animal Traction Study – Sahel *
Donor:                        United States Agency for International Development
Contract No:              AID/REDSO/WA-78-144  
Account No:               MSU 71-2045
Location:                    Mali, Senegal, Gambia, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Mauritania
Duration:                    September 1978-0ctober 1979
Budget:                       $43,471
Documents:               (Click here to view)

Project Goals:           To conduct a systematic study of animal traction schemes and experiences in West Africa and to provide policy guidelines to national institutions and external donors on the design, implementation. and evaluation of projects that include draught animal power as a central component.

Project Summary Comment:  Project analyses included an historical sketch of animal traction in the Sahel region; the technical and economic benefits from animal traction; adoption of animal traction systems for plowing, planting, weeding, and transport; farm level operations; evaluation of financial and economic effects; constraints to animal traction; and implications of constraints to production.

Documents About/From This Project:

• An Assessment of Animal Traction in Francophone West Africa.  [Electronic Resource] / By Merritt W. Sargent, John A. Lichte, Peter J. Matlon, and Roger Bloom.  African Rural Economy Working Paper No. 34. Department of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University.

* This description is adapted from work by Nancy E. Horn, an MSU alumnus from the Anthropology Department, published in 1985 “A Project History of Michigan State University’s Participation in International Development for the period 1951 – 1985”.  See AFRE Emeritus Faculty - Acknowledgements