In the period between the two World Wars Senegal was the world's second largest peanut exporter. Plant breeding became the priority of agricultural policy in Senegal and by 1951 half of the peanut production was due to 'improved' varieties. This paper explores the research and agricultural practices in the agricultural station of Bambey, which stood in sharp contrast with the Sereer farming system. Also, the extension of 'improved' strains is analysed as a learning process rather than a diffusion process. During this process, some practices and constraints of the station were imposed on the farmers.
The paper finally reflects on the turning of African peasantries into objects of knowledge and intervention. At a time when colonial state control and knowledge of agrarian societies were very weak, seed intervention was a tool of the cognitive penetration of Sereer and Wolof communities by the state and its experts, and a means to render them more amena ble to state intervention.
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