Agricultural Productivity and Food Security Program in Burkina Faso

Briefly explain the state of Burkina Faso.

Burkina Faso is a landlocked state in Western Africa which experiences inconsistent rainfall and unpredictable climate change events. It is impacted by deforestation, degradation and desertification.

Describe the agricultural sector of Burkina Faso.

The agricultural sector in Burkina Faso accounts for approximately 1/3 of the country’s total income. Approximately 80% of the populations employment is in this sector, despite low livestock and crop productivity.

Describe the state of food security in Burkina Faso.

Burkina Faso has relatively low livestock and crop productivity. Whilst Famine has primarily reduced, food security is still an ongoing challenge. Burkina Faso also imports a large range of foods; hence they are susceptible to increasing food prices worldwide.

Describe the purpose of the agricultural productivity and food security program that is funded by the World Bank.

It was introduced to help farmers increase food production by improving the producer’s capacity to ensure efficient and effective production and year-round-availability of cereals and livestock products in rural areas.

List 4 implementation factors of the program.

Improvement in food production and accessibility, post-harvest loss reduction, agricultural market coordination and management, monitoring and evaluation of project activities.

Explain management and monitoring and evaluation of project activities.

Funding is provided for the equipment, technical assistance and training required for program implementation and monitoring/evaluation to ensure the program was meeting its purpose.

Explain agricultural market coordination.

Better agricultural information systems so farmers can make better decisions and developing marketing cooperatives to provide them with access to credit.

What is post-harvest loss reduction.

Access to improve storage technologies that mitigates the loss that occurs once crops have been harvested.

Explain improvement in food production and accessibility.

Funding is provided to enable access to improved food technology for food crop production (involving improved seeds, fertiliser, manure and sustainable soil management technologies)

Explain how Gender Equality is present in the program.

Male and Female farmers are given the opportunity to undertake community work that is overseen by the Regional Chamber of Agriculture and local authorities. Some of this work involves preparing lowland areas for rice farming, organising plots and constructing water retention systems.

(T/F) Small rural farmers can access credit from financial institutions like banks. Farmers can use their harvests as collateral to obtain credit.

*Collateral - a security that is provided to guarantee the repayment of a loan.

T (True)