: Several studies carried out in different countries (and various ecosystems)
show that varietal diversity has generally reduced with the integration of farms into
markets. In Mali, farms sell an increasingly larger share of their cereal production in
order to meet the rapid growing urban demand. The question raised here is whether or
not this has had an influence on the diversity of sorghum and pearl millet landraces.
Different index of diversity were computed using data collected from surveys
conducted in 2010 in 120 Malian farms in two different villages. An econometric
model is estimated to assess the different significant explanatory factors of these
different indexes. Factors are related to the farm and the household characteristics
and especially its sales of cereals. We show that farms in the village better connected
to the market manage more sorghum and pearl millet cultivars than those of the
remote village. However, in this same village, farms that sell proportionately more
sorghum and pearl millet tend to reduce the number of landraces. These results
suggest that there are two contradictory trends related to the connection of markets on
crop biodiversity: one is a positive effect of opening up farms and the other a
negative effect of the specialization and simplification of crop systems for sale.