While the use of migrants’ remittances in the development of their home-towns is by no means a new phenomenon, the channelling of such money by state agencies, foreign donors and international NGOs is a relatively new concern in African countries. Over the last few years, the state of Mali – through the Ministry of the Malians Abroad and with the political and financial support of the European Union – has deployed very noticeable and consistent efforts in the ‘framing’ of transnational migrants, especially by channelling migrants’ remittances (hence controlling the flow of such money) in initiatives branded as ‘co-development.’ According to the proclaimed rationale of such policy – explaining the interest of the European Union in the funding of similar initiatives – ‘development,’ especially of agriculture, in countries like Mali will restrict migratory flows towards Europe. While such general and unidirectional causation has still to be proven (couldn’t ‘development’ foster migration rather than hamper it? What kind of 'migration' are we talking about?), in the case of Mali similar policies provide a good illustration of the new objectives of the Malian state in the age of transnational migration and financial capitalism. More particularly, ‘co-development’ provides the Malian state with a device to govern its transnational migrant population, a means  through which the state aims to control the monetary flows generated by its migrant citizens. This paper address the role of migrants, the state and other agencies involved in the ‘development’ of land and agriculture in Bancoumana, a rural municipality south-west of the Malian capital Bamako. Comparing a sequence of ‘failed’ attempts to boost rice production with more recent plans to ‘square’ the village-site into a regular series of land-plots, the analysis enlightens historical changes and continuities in the way development agencies, including the state, have targeted the land farmed and inhabited by the people of Bancoumana. I shall emphasize, more particularly, the long term relevance of indirect ways of governing the land by changing forms of state in Mali (late-colonial, independent, developmental and decentralized) and provide evidence of a shift in the means and the agenda of the current, decentralized form of state in developing its territory. Originally aimed at gaining control of the domestic agricultural production, plans for land development by the state have started targeting inhabitable land as a condition for the reproduction of a growing migrant population.

co-development; land; state; migration