Garden money buys grain: Food procurement patterns in a Malian village

This study of a rural Malian community in West Africa investigates food pro curement patterns that combine subsistence grain production with a variety, of income generating activities. It finds dependence on food purchases wid espread and revenue from the own-account activities of nonhousehold heads e ssential to food security. Gender and the wealth of households are found to influence some, but not all, income generating activities and expenditures . Three household food procurement profiles are identified: investment in c attle, market gardens and bush extraction, and remittances. The case study village has agroecological characteristics and market proximity, which set it and other urban hinterland villages apart from the more cotton- and catt le-based zones of southern Mali. Own-account income generating activities m ay be able to increase revenue for women and junior men through a reallocat ion of household resources without entirely undermining the basis for a lar ger subsistence-oriented household.