Abstract EN:

Our study deals with an amenagement project for irrigated rice production called "vallee du kou". The population participating in the project and concerned by its valorization is caracterized by an important ethnic diversity. The interests of those beneficiaries, that we can divide in two groups (autochtons and migrants), are quite distincts. The migrants (above all mossi) invest themselves actively from the beginning, while the autochtons considered the project only as a mean to diversify their economic activities. With the contextual project evolution, the conflits between the exploitants underlines autochtons will to take part again in the project while migrants try to preserve and reinforce their position and acquisition within the project. With those conflicts, we are observing the manipulation of formal rules edicted for the project and that of ethnic identity. Formal rules are read and used in order to control and reinforce the access of project resources. The reconstruction and revalorization of ethnic identity are a way to concentrate collective action. In this context, the way choosen by the possibles strategics groups is directed by interests groups : the mossi originated from yatenga and the autochtons. We find a kind of stability in the strategic groups and action groups given by and under-groups, when we consider the project in it historical globality, that is to say when we observe the evolution of the project during twenty an seven years. Besides, the notion of strategic group that mean to be operative in a local context, takes here, a regional and even a national dimension. The interests relative to the project are far from implying the only local actors. The fights between the strategic groups take place in an agricultural professionalization context. Those fights are oriented on the way to allow the interest groups to take the control of the project.