national hearing This contribution deals with shelling for pineapple production in the lower Côte d’Ivoire. As in the wider context of sub-Saharan West Africa, the emergence and dynamics of shellfish practices appear to be inextricably linked to the dynamics of agricultural production systems and migration flows — in other words, the relationship between indigenous (landowners) and migrants (sharecroppers). The analysis thus shows the role played by this type of contractual relationship for small, highly constrained migrants, in relation to high-cost market output, requiring a high investment in work and the relatively complex technical route. It shows how the diversity of contractual configurations for the same site, culture and term (culmination) allows actors who are under various constraints to be involved efficiently in this intensive production in terms of labour and capital. In addition to this plasticity, the study reveals the ambivalence of sharecropping, which at the same time plays an effective role in the process of building up and empowering tenants, but also enables owners to obtain a maximum return on investment and the expertise of lessees, through the power ratios resulting from a marked imbalance in the rental market.