Large‐ and Middle‐scale Farmers in the Groundnut Sector in Senegal in the Context of Liberalization and Structural Adjustment

The article presents preliminary ?ndings of a research survey on large‐and middle‐scale farmers and the groundnut sector in Senegal. The sampling of this group of producers is justi?ed on the basis of the high degree of social strati?cation and farmers’ heterogeneity existing in Senegal, and the methodological problems associated with approaches focused on the ‘ average representative farmer’. This argument leads to a task of grouping farmers into distinct classes according to capitalist tendencies, dynamism and scale of production. The core part of the article tackles the political economy of the process of agricultural liberalization and structural adjustment in Senegal and their effects on the behaviour and production conditions of the classes of large‐and middle‐scale farmers analysed in the ?rst part.