DIVERSITY AT DIFFERENT LEVELS - FARM AND COMMUNITY IN WESTERN NIGERIA

The difficulty of applying the concept of diversity to empirical resea rch can be mitigated by empirical specificity. By applying it to the p articular question of how cropping patterns in a community within the food supply hinterland of Ibadan have changed over twenty years of inc reasing market orientation one can both illuminate agricultural dynami cs and also subject the concept of diversity to critique. This Nigeria n case study argues that individual farmers have developed more weight ed ('specialised') production patterns, but differently from one anoth er, so that the community as a whole has retained a similar diversity profile to that of the past. Yoruba concepts and practices with respec t to individuation and social diversity should be at the heart of an u nderstanding of these patterns of change.