Quelques réflexions à propos de la politique togolaise de développement rural mise en œuvre au cours de la décennie 1980 (Some thoughts about the politics of rural development in Togo during the 1980's)

Abstract

In Togo, agriculture accounts for 35 percent of the GNP, 30 percent of export products and 80 percent of the people's occupations. The urban people per capita income is about four times higher than that of the rural people ; as a result the agriculture sector represents only a demand worth US$ 60 millions per an in terms of buying power. It has been estimated that, through the 1980s, the annual income of the 270,000 farmers families of whom a census was taken, amounted to US $216 millions for a 39 percent market réintégration ratio. From 1975 to the mid-1980s two ministries were exclusively in charge of the rural development at the level of the political establishment, namely the Ministry of Rural Development wich was essentially responsible for the incentives to production, and the Ministry of Rural Life Planning whose major responsibilities included questions relating to agricultural economy, infrastructure, raw materials supply and environmental protection. From the ministries down to the international organisations and NGOs in charge of the implementation of the development projects in the rural sector, the State organisations that are operational in the agricultural sector are poorly coordinated. Up to the end of the 1980s, Togo had no central planning for the rural development in the shape of budget endowments allocated to the investments in favour of certain particular objectives. The different countries and donor organisations keep on implementing rural development projects in their «sphere of intervention» alongside a series of projects initiated by the State of Togo. This study purports to be a review of the activities conducted in favour of the development of the togo- lese rural world throughout the 1980s.