Drawing on four years of field research with farmers in the Sahelian region of North East Nigeria, and building on work with these communities over several decades, Working the Sahel looks at how people in the semi-arid conditions of the Sahel cope with their harsh environment, and in particular examines the ways in which they organise their labour to manage fields, crops and other resources. Working the Sahel analyses the diversity, flexibility and adaptability that are the critical attributes of successful Sahelian systems of resource management. Reporting on studies of four village communities and their natural environments, it examines the ultimate cause of much environmental variability in the Sahel: the rainfall and its characteristics. The authors look at how farmers manage biological resources, crop and non-crop biodiversity, soil fertility, and transform the landscape through agricultural intensification. They show how gender, age and the division of labour interact, and how women and children make essential contributions to household viability. The authors conclude with an examination of differentiation between households, and try to define poverty in a rural Sahelian context, as well as placing issues in a broader policy context. Working the Sahel presents important new evidence to indicate that the ‘crisis’ of degradation in the Sahel can be contained, and indeed is in some areas being contained, through the work of rural communities themselves.