This study aims to sensitize those concerned with Africa's development to the scope and limits of peasant livelihood securing activities. It combines results of research in the fields of peasant actions, food security, gender relations, and labour migration to a livelihood approach. Analyzing peasant life in western Sudan leads to the demand to keep options open. A review of the development programmes which affected the Sudanese rural population between independence and 1994 discloses that peasants' efforts have largely been obstructed.