InstitutionClaim Cited
Mali Office du Niger
The Office du Niger began as a French colonial project to turn land commanded by the Markala diversion dam into a cotton and rice estate through forced labor and settlement. Independent Mali retained centralized land-and-water authority, then reforms from the 1980s raised rice yields by rehabilitating irrigation, narrowing the agency's role, opening markets, and giving farmers more room to organize and decide. State ownership and large leases nevertheless preserve unequal power over permits, water, villages, pastoral routes, and the downstream Inner Niger Delta.
How did a coercive colonial irrigation estate become a productive rice system—and why did improved farm performance not settle who controls its land, water, and future?