Unravelling the Sikasso Paradox: Agricultural Change, Cotton and Malnutrition in Southern Mali

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  • March 20, 2019
Creator
  • Cooper, Matthew
    • Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Geography
Abstract
  • The cash crop cotton has been suggested as a cause of the unexpectedly high malnutrition rates in the Sikasso region of Mali. This paper tests that hypothesis as well as two of the proposed pathways by which cotton has been suggested to cause malnutrition: through worsening diets and though reduced ecosystem services from soil degradation and agricultural extensification. Both household surveys and region scale satellite imagery combined with Demographic and Health Surveys suggest that there is an association between cotton cultivation and malnutrition. However, there was no evidence that cotton cultivationisrelatedtoworseneddietsormalnutritionatahouseholdlevel. Rather,cotton cultivation, reduced biodiversity and malnutrition are all associated at a village level, indicating that the environmental effects of cotton cultivation may be causing associated malnutrition through reduced ecosystem services.
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  • In Copyright
Advisor
  • Song, Conghe
  • Persha, Lauren
  • West, Colin
Degree
  • Master of Arts
Degree granting institution
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School
Graduation year
  • 2016
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Date uploaded
  • July 5, 2017

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