Labour organisation, commercial income and distribution in arid areas : A study case at Tatki (in the Senegalese Sahel)

Abstract

The specificities of the Senegalese pastoral context (mobility, non-equilibrium environment, informal exchanges and scarcity of the resources) required a device of data collecting adapted. The investigations allowed identifying the labour inside pastoral families organised to save the productive potential through sometimes the wage-labour. The site of Tatki has relatively high wage-labour ,a (e (35%) whereas the average in Ferlo is of 25%. This labour organisation makes it possible to the herders of Tatki to have some ruminants to exchange them on the markets in a limited and punctual way. The main motivation for selling livestock and animal products often consists in releasing money holdings that would allow the pastor, to cover their usual expenses and to ensure their food safety. The receipts gained on the markets resulted however on an uneven distribution between the encampments of Tatki (Gini index: 55.8%). Like many sites of Ferlo (Senegalese Sahel), the inequalities at Tatki remain very high in comparison with national situation.