Multi-scale governance in agriculture systems: Interplay between national and local institutions around the production dimension of food security in Mali

The paper documents the institutional logics of three case studies. The first case study focuses on farmer cooperatives and analyses the rules and routines enforced by new national legislation in replacement of traditional village associations. The argument behind this new arrangement was to better facilitate members’ access to agricultural inputs and services to enhance food production. The second case is about the institutional arrangement of seed systems in Mali. The new agricultural development framework includes a Seed Law aimed at facilitating farmers’ access to high quality seed. Seed is considered a major driver of production increase and the government has devoted significant effort to improve access of farmers. The third case, offering another example of a cross-scalar institutional divide, relates to the institutional arrangement established through the local convention for the management of natural resources. This case highlights the process of the devolution of tasks and responsibilities to local communities through the decentralization policy. The reactions and controversies relating to these three examples of institutional arrangements are analyzed below to bring insights on diagnosing institutions.  Through exploring these cases, this paper tests bricolage as an analytical framework for doing an institutional diagnostic. It aims at contributing to methodological and theoretical insights on the way sustainable institutions can be generated in conflicting institutional logics in the context of multi-scale governance