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We are now concerned with refining and making more specific the ‘General structural model of a regional actor-oriented perspective
on the conditions and the situation in rural Africa', described above, at the societal level of real-life actors. This is done by selecting a relevant category of actors and then embeddedness them in the immediate socio-cultural context.
The rural population of sub-Saharan Africa still consists primarily of small-scale producers and they 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 "peasantry": 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 features characterise  peasant societies (and also apply to individual peasant households):
- Peasant societies must be considered as subordinate societies in that they are part of a larger, dominating social system.
- Peasant societies are accordingly in a continuous state of transition, resulting from the constant need to adapt to changing
external conditions.
- Peasant societies and households are dependent on markets that exhibit a high degree of imperfection and subject the peasants
to exploitation.
- A kind of parallel economy can be found in peasant societies, which has been described as a "moral economy" or "economy of affection": reciprocal trading and support channels are established as part of a social network.
- Peasant societies exhibit varying degrees of internal social and economic differentiation and stratification.
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