For each of the two crop they selected, farmers where asked about the names and the numbers of varieties they known, they grow; and about the numbers of varieties existing in their village and in the whole country. They were requested to provide dedicated names name in local language when they knew it, and otherwise to provide any appellation they commonly use. For the two last questions (village and country), it was indicated to farmers that only a rough estimation of numbers was needed.
A total of 630 distinct locutions was cited by farmers as naming or describing varieties: 267 for cassava, 207 for banana, 92 for coconut and 32 for cocoa and oil palm. By eliminating the obvious duplicates, the total number of locutions was reduced to 513. For instance, in the case of coconut, the locutions “Ghana”, Ghanéen”, “Cocotier Ghanéen” were replaced by “Ghana”.
Among the 2218 locutions given by farmers for the 5 crops together, only 28% are traditional names in local languages. For the remaining, 11% are names of political people (Yacé, Houphouet, Gbabo), 10 % are names of countries (Ghana, Brazil…), 7% refers to culinary properties (foutou, attiéké...), 6% are names institutions of companies (CNRA, Anader, Sicor…), 6% were described as “local” or “from the village”, 5% were name of commercial and modern varieties. The type of locution used varies a lot according to the different crops.
The file containing the data analysed can be downloaded on Excel format, ranked either by interviews or by crops and varieties.
The file containing the data analysed can be downloaded on Excel format, ranked either by interviews or by crops and varieties.
Typology of locutions used by Ivorian farmers
to describe the varieties of five crops:
banana, cassava, cocoa, coconut and oil palm
(in percentage of the total number of locutions cited).
Typology of locutions
|
Examples of locutions
|
All 5 crops
|
Cas-sava
|
Ba-
nana |
Co-
coa |
Coco-nut
|
Oil palm
|
local language
|
assimanana,
agninnin, apkêkpênon
|
28
|
40
|
40
|
0
|
0
|
5
|
Person
(political) |
Yace, Houphouet,
Gbabo
|
11
|
21
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
Country
|
Ghana, France,
Israel, Brazil
|
10
|
1
|
0
|
64
|
10
|
2
|
Culinary
|
attiéké, foutou,
plôko-plôkô
|
7
|
5
|
23
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
Institutions
|
Cnra, Anader
|
6
|
2
|
1
|
20
|
4
|
37
|
Village local
|
local, villageois
|
6
|
0
|
3
|
1
|
29
|
24
|
Modern variety
|
mercedes, bocou,
hybride
|
5
|
1
|
0
|
7
|
29
|
5
|
City region
|
Bonoua,
Bingerville, Konakry
|
5
|
8
|
3
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
Other
|
pretty mama,
sweet potato
|
4
|
7
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
1
|
Precocity
|
1 year, 6 months
|
4
|
7
|
0
|
4
|
0
|
0
|
Color
|
purple, yellow,
red
|
4
|
4
|
6
|
0
|
5
|
1
|
Shape and other
traits
|
roundish, short,
without seeds, 2 bunches
|
3
|
0
|
14
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
Mixed
|
red dwarf, long
and brown
|
2
|
0
|
2
|
1
|
13
|
0
|
Social groups
|
gouro, baoulé, of
whites, of blacks
|
2
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
2
|
Size
|
large, small
|
2
|
0
|
6
|
0
|
2
|
1
|
Continent
|
African, American
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
3
|
20
|
Total (%)
|
100
|
100
|
100
|
100
|
100
|
100
|
|
Total number of
locutions cited
|
2218
|
1123
|
428
|
280
|
301
|
86
|
|
Number of
distinct locutions
|
513
|
223
|
164
|
28
|
67
|
31
|