Crop biocultural traits and diversity dynamics among Bassari farmers

Anna Porcuna-Ferrer (), Théo Guillerminet, Delphine Renard, Vanesse Labeyrie, Christian Leclerc and Victoria Reyes-García
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Anna Porcuna-Ferrer: Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Théo Guillerminet: CIRAD, UMR AGAP Institut
Delphine Renard: CEFE, CNRS, Univ Montpellier, University Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, EPHE, IRD
Vanesse Labeyrie: CIRAD, UMR SENS
Christian Leclerc: CIRAD, UMR AGAP Institut
Victoria Reyes-García: Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Agriculture and Human Values, 2025, vol. 42, issue 3, No 8, 1323-1345

Abstract: Abstract Cultural and ecological dimensions of agriculture are often considered as contrasting in agricultural research. This is well reflected on approaches to variety evaluation and selection that privilege a narrow set of agronomic indicators that do not account for the complexity of farmer-crop interactions. In this work, we explore the concept of ‘crop biocultural traits’ to integrate the social and biological dimensions of crops and the entanglements between them. Our research is based on a case-study in a Bassari village of south-eastern Senegal, where we explored the biocultural traits that farmers assign to crops and varieties together with their abundance, distribution and trends. We focus on six local staple crops, namely sorghum, Bambara groundnut, fonio, maize, rice and peanut. Our methods include key-informant and semi-structured interviews, individual trait scoring exercises and participatory workshops. Our results reveal that Bassari farmers characterize crops and varieties considering both their agronomic but also their socio-economic and cultural traits. Bassari maintain a basket of crops and varieties that, together, bear multiple and complementary traits. However, no biocultural trait alone can explain crop and variety abundance, distribution, and trends. We conclude that understanding crop diversity dynamics requires embracing the complexity of biocultural interactions. We argue that this is also a matter of ontological pluralism and of viewing agricultural knowledge as a collective effort and a common good. Only by including diverse ways of knowing will it be possible for plant breeding and conservation efforts to address farmers contextualized needs and priorities.

Keywords: Agrobiodiversity; Biocultural diversity; Neglected and underutilised species; Local knowledge; Smallholder farmers; West Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s10460-025-10725-0

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