The Peasant Rationale of Action

Download and read the Laikipia fact sheet in the right-hand column:

This text will familiarise you with the situation of smallholders and peasants in rural Kenya (Laikipia District). It is imperative that you read this introduction first so as to be able to visualise the particular natural and human environment and understand something of the historical background.



What does ''peasant'' mean?

The rural population of sub-Saharan Africa still consists primarily of small-scale producers, who continue to increase in numbers. This makes them key actors in any consideration of development and environmental problems in rural Africa. With the exception of arid areas, when we talk of small-scale producers we primarily mean small-scale farmers. Some common characteristics of these societies can be described in terms of the concept of "termpeasantry": Its distinguishing features are derived from the interplay between the local agrarian culture and economic structure and national (and global) structures and developments.

The following five characteristics defined in (Wiesmann 1998) can be taken as central features of peasant households, the actors that are considered in the present discussion:

  1. Livelihoods are primarily - but not exclusively - earnt from farming and normally consist of a combination of crop-farming and livestock production.
  2. The household owns its own means of production, especially land, or at least has rights of access to land.
  3. Agricultural production is based primarily - but not exclusively - on household labour.
  4. Household activities are balanced between production and consumption, with inputs reflecting aspects of both production and consumption.
  5. Production reflects varying levels of subsistence.


Having selected peasants in rural Laikipia as our key actors, we can now turn to these peasants' strategies of action. With regard to the "structural model" under discussion here, it is a question now of establishing the basic features or logic these peasants' strategies of action have in common. Wiesmann (1998) divides the basic guidelines of optimising and harmonising strategies of action into the two theoretical schools which explain the peasant's rationale of action in relation to economic variants:

  • the profit-maximising peasant who acts in a economically efficient way, where no change in input or output has an effect on his income; and
  • the risk-averse peasant who acts according to the principle of "safety first" in a high-risk environment.


Download and read the .pdf in the right hand column on the peasants rationale of action:



As a means of interpreting the "peasant's rationale of action", Wiesmann (1998) suggests the utility-optimising peasant by combining both theories. The peasant thereby still adopts multiple strategies, following the principle of minimising risks, but beyond this, he/she takes available opportunities to optimise utility (see the illustration to the right):



The "utility concept" has three overall dimensions of aims, which provide a useful framework for interpreting the meaning of action:

  1. The need to secure one's livelihood in material terms;
  2. The need for social recognition and status;
  3. The need to ensure both material and social resources to secure one's livelihood.


"Utility" is optimised by peasants through their individual utility-maximisation, e.g. through their strategy of action.



Note: for a full understanding of peasant rationale, all three points need to be kept in mind!




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