Abstract
The thesis of Séhouéto can be compared with two important rivals. Firstly, it is the research on local knowledge aims at re-establishing peasant knowledge. Secondly it is the work of Robin Horton, principal sociological author on knowledge in African cultures. Although Séhouéto acknowledges their good and anti-racist intentions he all the same criticises the resulting simplifications such as the homogeneity and stability of the ways of learning.
In order to analyse the forms and the dynamics of knowledge he applies his own research to two local societies in Benin. He has chosen a sphere of knowledge of great importance which, according to the opinion of agricultural experts, holds the key to solving the food crisis in Africa. These are knowledge of the combinations between varieties of plants, types of soil, association of plants, fertilisation in food production.
The major innovation in Séhouéto's work is that he speaks of peasant knowledge not only as a homogenous entity, but, on the contrary, he insists on internal stratification as well as the fact that the peasants themselves are more or less well-informed and make more or less good use of this knowledge. Séhouéto's facts do not confirm the perspective, although widely represented among researchers, of "peasant knowledge" as part of a holistic worldview or of a religious system.
The extreme heterogeneity - in which rural administration of development aid takes part - as well as the unforeseeability of a marginalised peasant economy complicates economic planning. Against all expectation peasant knowledge is characterised here by diversity and variation.
Séhouéto shows that there are, in effect, certain forms of "public space" in the researched societies, although there are neither an institutionalised form of exchange of information nor a form of critique which systemis es this knowledge. Of course, peasant knowledge is diffused, although through a multitude of channels. And as there is no specific way of imparting agricultural knowledge this impedes its diffusion.
Using different methods of gathering material, the author opens a new chapter in "local knowledge" research. Agriculturists will also find many suggestions for research concerning agricultural learning. The work is critical in respect of the assumed opposition between open and closed societies (Popper). Those societies which in Africa had been considered as being "closed", seem to be, in actual fact, nothing but projections. | 
