Dependence on foreign aid, political instability, chronic poverty, and the effects of climate change are among the obstacles preventing Burkina Faso from achieving its longed-for food sovereignty.
Currently, about 80% of the population of the Sahelian nation is involved in agricultural activity, which accounts for a third of the GDP. Even so, the country still imports more than 200,000 tons of rice per year.
In response to this challenge, President Ibrahim Traoré’s government launched the so-called Agricultural Offensive in 2023, which has been revolutionizing the rural environment and serving as a model for the continent. The central objective is to end dependence on imports of widely consumed food products.
According to Mark Gansonré, a farmer and representative of farmers’ associations in the National Transitional Assembly, in implementing the program, the new government sought to listen to the country’s farmers. “I believe he [Traoré] took the time to understand the cry from the hearts of Burkina Faso’s farmers.”
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“Since 2002, we have undertaken a series of actions, beginning with the demand for recognition of agriculture as a full and legitimate profession. We obtained an agricultural guidance law to structure this recognition. We also worked to facilitate access to credit for small producers. Today, we have reached a point of true gratitude. Thank God, last year this government allocated 78 billion CFA francs for the purchase of agricultural equipment, making it available to farmers,” celebrates Gansonré.
The numbers of the Agricultural Offensive
The offensive has already yielded results in food self-sufficiency. Yields per hectare in the country have increased dramatically since the start of the offensive, with improvements of around 35% to 40%.
Most notably, the country achieved grain surpluses for two consecutive years, a stark contrast to the historical pattern of deficits prior to the current administration. In 2024, six million tons of grain were harvested in Burkina Faso.
This occurred despite the presence of fundamentalist jihadist groups around the country. By the end of this year, the agricultural program aims to create 100,000 jobs for the population displaced by terrorism. About 54% of the budget is funded by the private sector and 46% from the state.
“If there are more than a million displaced people, the majority of this population is in rural areas. Many of these farmers abandoned lands that could not be cultivated. But this does not prevent us from producing today. Despite the abandonment of several agricultural areas that could not be cultivated, there has been significant support so that in regions where there is still productive capacity, farmers could intensify production in order to feed the Burkinabé people,” Gansonré points out.
Luc Damiba, special advisor to the Prime Minister of Burkina Faso, believes that even in a context of low rainfall, the country has good land and abundant water, which, according to him, makes it possible to reorganize production to supply the citizens. He emphasizes that guaranteeing sufficient food for the population is the basis of any national project.
“We need to work with the peasants, work with them well. If we don’t do that, they will be occupied by the terrorists. That’s the first gain. The second gain is that they will produce enough to achieve food self-sufficiency. The third gain is that we will have well-prepared political actors committed to advancing the revolution,” he analyzes.
“If we don’t have the peasant world to carry out the revolution, we will fail. We can only count on the peasant world to accomplish it. And Traoré started well by adopting this offensive agricultural policy, capable of mobilizing this group, which became a fundamental political actor,” adds Damiba.
Relationship with Sankara
The quest for food sovereignty in the region has deep historical roots, dating back to Thomas Sankara’s revolution in the 1980s. The agrarian reform implemented by Sankara, in addition to distributing land to those who actually produced it, aimed to politically engage this large mass of small farmers. In 1987, after four years in power in Burkina Faso, the UN recognized the country for the first time as self-sufficient in food production.
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Following the assassination of the former president and leader of the historic Burkinabé revolution, however, decades of policies that prioritized export crops at the expense of family farming led the Sahel country to once again depend on external inputs.
The colonial model, dictated by global agribusiness multinationals, such as Monsanto, gained ground in the country during the regime of Blaise Compaoré, the mastermind behind the Sankara massacre, who governed the country from 1987 to 2014, with the support of the French government.
For Mark Gansonré, the implementation of the Agricultural Offensive is a symbol of Traoré’s alignment with Sankara’s ideas.
“It’s as if we have a Sankara. Sankara has awakened. It’s true that in his time most of the population didn’t quite understand his vision. He was a mobilizer… But today, after his passing, there has been an awakening, and this current government has effectively stimulated that awakening,” he said.
Mechanization
The current government’s offensive has been marked by strong direct support for rural producers and unprecedented investments in mechanization. The strategy focuses on substantially increasing production in eight priority areas: rice, corn, potatoes, wheat, fish, livestock, poultry, and mangoes.
Financing for the purchase of machinery in the country, much of it from China, relies on two main sources: the nationalization of gold and the creation of a patriotic fund financed by the population itself.
Since Traoré took control of two mines that previously belonged to a London-listed company and began construction of a state-owned refinery, the government has already allocated USD 179 million for the purchase of agricultural machinery.
Sawadogo Pasmamde, or Oceán, a multi-artist and member of the Thomas Sankara Center for Freedom and African Union, details the transformation.
“For the first time, tractors are being distributed throughout the country. Agricultural inputs are being delivered to farmers, giving them everything they need to produce. In addition, all the agricultural engineers who worked in the cities have been transferred to the countryside to directly monitor and support the farmers. And now, we see that the results are beginning to appear as a reward for this effort,” Oceán celebrates.
The two types of agriculture
According to the government’s announcement, the differentiated mechanization includes draft animals for small producers, and, on the other hand, tillers and tractors for large enterprises. Initially, more than 400 tractors were distributed, in addition to subsidized fertilizers. For the 2025-2026 campaign, the package should include the delivery of 608 tractors and 1,102 tillers.
According to Marc Gansonré, this is a long-standing demand from the country’s farmers that has never been fully met. He recalls that there was an initial attempt during the revolution led by Sankara, but the process was interrupted after his death.
During the Compaoré administration, he adds that a program even distributed carts to farmers, but without the necessary draft animals for their use. The initiative was stalled for years until, after demands from the farmers, subsidies were introduced for plows and for animals such as donkeys and oxen.
Even so, the reach of the policies remained limited. According to the parliamentarian, at the time there were about 1.4 million farming families in the country, but less than half were served by the programs: “coverage reached only 27%, then 32%”.
“And, thank God, we had the arrival of this current president, who understood from the beginning the signs of this need to support mechanization,” he emphasizes.
According to Marc, mechanization in the country today is carried out in a differentiated way, respecting the spatial dimensions of each cultivable area and the financial capabilities of the producing families.
He explains that in Burkina Faso, there are two types of agriculture: family-run farms and large-scale agricultural enterprises that require heavy equipment.
“Giving a rototiller or tractor to someone who doesn’t have the means to properly maintain that equipment is like doing nothing. That’s why we work to ensure that small producers continue to be supported with plows and draft animals, while those who have progressed a bit more can work with rototillers,” explains Gansonré.
“When rainfall doesn’t exceed 5 millimeters and you need to sow, it’s necessary to cultivate as much of the area as possible within the following 24 to 48 hours. And doing this manually is very difficult. That’s why seeders and tillers were introduced to improve soil preparation,” he adds.
Creation of industries
In addition to production, the Burkinabé government’s focus with its Agricultural Offensive is on industrialization and adding value to locally grown products. In the country, the creation of processing units has generated jobs and even allowed farmers to become shareholders in some of the factories that have been opened.
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The country’s first tomato processing plant, inaugurated in 2024 in Bobo Dioulasso, has 20% state participation and 80% community capital, organized by APEC, the Agency for the Promotion of Community Entrepreneurship. The organization, founded in 2022, is primarily supported by the small and medium-sized national bourgeoisie.
Souleymane Yougbare, director of the National Council for Organic Agriculture of Burkina Faso (CNABio), believes that the initiative has reduced dependence on imports and developed the local economy.
“If we have, for example, 100% Burkinabé tomato puree, this allows us to protect our markets, it allows us to be autonomous in relation to the consumption of tomato puree and also avoid cases of poisoning. We don’t know how anything we import is produced,” says Yougbare.
He also highlights how the factory has added value to the farmers’ production, who previously lost a large part of their harvest due to a lack of alternative distribution channels.
“Before, tomato production in Burkina Faso was very high, but unfortunately, producers lost a good portion because the tomatoes rotted in the fields or had to be sold at very low prices. That’s sad. There were even exporters, or rather, importers and exporters, who came to buy at ridiculously low prices and resold in other countries. All of this destroys our economy,” he assesses.
On the other hand, Yougbare argues that the advancement of industrialization in the country must be accompanied by reflection on its impacts. “When we think about industrialization, and the name says it all, we need to be careful that it doesn’t bring other problems, as we see in developed countries: pollution of the ozone layer, the impact on the climate … Therefore, it is necessary that the solutions be truly local, adapted to our context and our needs,” he explains.
Member of Parliament Marc Gansonré believes that the country is currently experiencing a shift in consciousness, “a spirit of patriotism” that leads the population to say: “If we want to be autonomous, it’s good to receive help, but it’s better that we ourselves work to find solutions to our internal problems. And what we cannot do, we can seek outside.”
He concludes: “I recognize that these are truly new elements that we are observing today, thanks to the vision of the Head of State and his government. This gives us great hope that, soon, West Africa will be an example for other countries.”
First published on Brasil de Fato in Portuguese.
The post Agricultural offensive: how Burkina Faso is moving towards self-sufficiency in food production appeared first on Peoples Dispatch.
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