Rearing pigs in a West African city: Arrangements between actors to manage the proximity between the city and livestock farming

Abstract

Whereas an increasing number of studies are focusing on urban agriculture, urban pig rearing remains largely unknown. Yet it is present in many cities in the South and provides an income for many families. This study aimed to overpass analyses focusing on technical aspects of this type of farming to take a broader interest in the social and spatial framework in which pig farmers breed pigs in the city. It was based on an empirical approach that made it possible to understand the conditions for the development and maintenance of pig breeding in Burkina Faso’s second-largest city, Bobo-Dioulasso. The practices of small-scale livestock breeders are discussed, in particular the part played by the arrangements between actors in mobilizing both the technical and social resources needed to conduct and sustain this type of farming. The results highlight that pig farmers have a logic of reduced mobility: the arrangements they develop with other actors are based on the political, spatial and social invisibility of livestock farming, and the links they develop to access external resources are rooted in time and in close proximity. Their social and spatial environment is central for the daily management of livestock farms as well as for their sustainability in the short and medium terms.