A New Generation of Ideas
every three years, and an officer may hold the same position for a maximum of two terms. The guidelines for elections, the officers’ responsibilities, and other rules for governing the UPO are laid out in their Statut de Réglement Interior (Interior Regulations Statute). Most of the UPOs hold meetings onsite every one or two weeks with the whole membership, who also then pay a small amount of dues—usually FCFA 500 (or $1) a week. Within each UPO’s designated area, members cultivate their own individual plots and are responsible for selling their own produce. According to numerous maraîchers, gaining access to a plot of land within the Houeyiho site is “impossible” without first becoming a member of one of the five UPOs. There are currently no available plots of land at Houeyiho, meaning that none of the UPOs are currently accepting new members and that plots of land only change hands when one family member takes over from another. However, the UPO Executive Board has the authority to insist that each new maraîcher has a minimum level of agricultural knowledge, which can be obtained through working on the family plot. When UPOs have accepted new members in the past, they have required candidates to demonstrate a background in irrigated vegetable production. Many UPO Executive Board officers have emphasized the importance of technical knowledge and experience in their members for ensuring the success of the group as a whole. There have been past cases when UPOs at Houeyiho have accepted maraîchers who were displaced by the eviction of previous market garden sites in Cotonou. Collectively, the five primary UPOs at the Houeyiho site are all members of the Cooperatives de Maraîchers de Houeyiho group (CMH; Houeyiho Vegetable Gardener’s Cooperatives), whose leadership is made up of the presidents from the five UPOs. As an Executive Board officer elaborated in an interview, the main responsibilities of the CMH leadership are to cultivate external relationships and govern any projects that involve the whole Houeyiho site. In particular, one member of the CMH leadership is the liaison between the maraîchers and ASECNA, the landowner. Secure land tenure rights. The UPOs at Houeyiho do not have legally bound secure land tenure, and none of the UPOs’ activities include campaigning for land tenure rights. Despite these facts, many maraîchers at Houeyiho do not perceive an imminent threat of eviction. In the opinion of one Executive Board officer, “We have our agreement with ASECNA, we keep good relations with them, and we know that eviction will only come | 111 |