Description: (Complete text in German) Soil degradation has made erosion control & water harvesting an important measure in most of sub-Sahelian Western Africa. The construction of stone lines, dikes & dams has been proven a sustainable measure which is widely accepted by the rural population of northern Burkina Faso. The objective of a field study which was conducted in Bam Province from 1992 to 1994 was to investigate economic profitability of erosion control measures under farmers' conditions on household level & for different household sub-groups. Main aspects concerned yield changes in small farmers' staple food grain production of sorghum & millet as well as the competition of rock bund construction with other dry season activities. Based on farm surveys, assessment of impact on farmers' fields, investment calculations & risk considerations examined different types of costs: construction & maintenance costs, opportunity costs of dry season activities as well as subsidies offered by development organizations. Results show a high dependence of investment on opportunity costs of family labor & the competition of dry season activities to resource conservation. Farmers' perception of weather induced harvest failure & conservation induced harvest gains makes risk an important factor in rock bund construction. Women as one of the major household sub-groups have no rock bunds on their individual plots & only gain from resource conservation by family fields. So far, it can not be guaranteed that women's economic position is stabilized by resource conservation.

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