Is the GM cotton touted for Burkina Faso and West Africa really the new 'white gold?'

Cotton is Burkina Faso's most important export crop. As in many other African countries, cotton cultivation and the industry in general have for many years been severely challenged by various factors, including: increasingly unpredictable climate; declining soil fertility; expensive and hard to access inputs like fertilizer; and  low competitiveness versus mechanized, subdized farmers in the US, Brazil and elsewhere.

As a result of all these factors and more, cotton farming is a declining sector in many African countries. But for Burkina Faso and a handful of its West African neighbors, giving up this sector is not as easy as in more agriculturally and economically diversified countries.

As part of efforts to shore up the many challenges of its cotton sector, Burkina Faso adopted GM cotton about 10 years ago. GM cotton has been controversial in India for all sorts of reasons, not all of which apply to Burkina Faso, but the latter country's adoption and use of GM cotton has been a fairly quiet affair. In the African context, GM cotton is far less controversial than the idea of gene technology applied to an iconic food crop like maize, as South Africa has long done and Kenya has recently accepted to start doing.

As with all things to do with GM crops, the benefits of GM cotton for Burkina Faso depend on who you ask. But GM cotton there is firmly established, reportedly accounting for as much as 50% of the total
planted area.

Peter Dörrie critiques comments made by Jean-Paul Sawadogo, the head of the national textile association of Burkina Faso, Sofitex. Sawadogo touts the advantages of GM cotton and expresses the hope that the share of it in in Burkina 'will rise to 60% during the next season and ideally 90% in the future.'

Unlike a lot of the criticisms of gene modification made by many activists, Dörrie's is calm and not overtly ideological. This is relevant and important because it makes his points relatively easy to pay attention to and digest on their merits. There is no obvious sense of his promoting (or necessarily opposing) one or another 'agenda.' He simply raises questions and makes points that come across as being entirely reasonable and fact/logic-based.

Writes Dörrie, ''I see several problems with this anticipated reliance on GM cotton. Firstly, it subjects the cotton farmers (not to speak of the national economy of Burkina Faso) to the whims of a company. Monsanto is not exactly known for its do-gooding attitude and as the “creator” of Bt cotton with the political power of the USA behind it, relying on them as a “partner” is a risky gamble.''

Arguably this point is hard to dispute, regardless of whether one is pro or anti GM. In a business sense, let alone from the perspective of national policy, it seems a strategy fraught with danger for a country to tie the fortunes of its almost sole cash crop to the whims of a far off foreign company that at polite best can be described as aggressive in protecting its commercial interests. Even if Monsanto had a benign reputation, how does it make good sense for Burkina Faso to willy nilly become so dependent on that company to provide the seed for the one crop that drives whatever economy Burkina Faso has? Is this not to virtually  invite future abuse by that foreign commercial entity?

Dörrie also questions what will happen if and when Monsanto raises the price of GM cotton seeds, which he points out 'have to be bought each year from a licensed reseller,' beyond what they can afford. The glib answer to this question has often been that increased production/yields will make the farmers able to afford the GM seed each year, but that has not at all been the consistent expeience of Indian GM cotton farmers. Poor rains (an increasingly likely prospect in Bukina Faso's sub-region) or lack of one or another input can easily wipe out  a small scale cotton farmer, who is often at the edge of disaster even in the best of times.

Dorrie points out that ''the benefits (of GM over conventional cotton) are not as clear as Mr. Sawadogo makes them seem. The evidence on long-time productivity enhancement through the use of GM
cotton is inconclusive, with different studies contradicting each other.'' He goes on to add, ''It is telling that Sawadogo qualifies his productivity claim with the need to use the right fertilizing regime.''

That last point is also important because how to make fertilizer consistently, affordably accessible to small scale African farmers is a huge question that no one has been able to answer, including all the peddlers of the various 'green revolution' gospels that are currently crawling all over Africa.

Dorrie's article is one of the better, more measured critiques of the possible implications of a poor country seeking to turn over almost all source material/seed of its main/sole cash crop to one commercial entity, and one with the reputatin of Monsanto at that.

African Agriculture

West African cotton production up, despite varying national trends

USDA analysis of the West African cotton sector suggests that while weather events have affected the area planted and cotton yields, this season’s cotton production ‘could be as much as a third greater than last year’s production level.’

There is a new (2011/20) region-level cotton strategy to improve the competitiveness of the cotton/textile sector.

The cotton companies raised the prices they paid to farmers for the 2011/12 season – at over FCFA 245/kg, or €0.374 (except for Chad, at FCFA 215/kg or €0.328). These prices were at a historic high.

These incentives have duly fulfilled their purpose in Mali, where production, even if it does not reach the targeted 500,000 tonnes, will nevertheless record a substantial increase.

In Côte d’Ivoire production seems likely to exceed 200,000 tonnes by as much as 50,000 tonnes according to USDA estimates. This is due to high farm gate prices following a 26% increase in June 2011, combined with the October 2011 decision to ‘slash input prices for MY 2011/12 by 25%’ in order to boost farmers’ incomes. The number of farmers sowing cotton is estimated to have increased by over one-third.

In Burkina Faso, a planting boycott by farmers following a failure to secure a 174% increase in farm gate prices is likely to see production substantially below the government’s targeted level of 600,000 tonnes. Indeed, according to USDA projections poor rains are likely to see production of around 380,000 tonnes. While organic cotton production is growing in Burkina Faso (+162%) as a result of a partnership with the US retailer Victoria’s Secret, it remains less than 0.5% of total national cotton production.

Discontent on the part of Burkinabe cotton farmers in some areas calling for a higher price for their produce led to some 100,000 ha of the crop being destroyed

In Mali, despite efforts to promote production, late rains affected seed cotton production. Nevertheless, according to the USDA analysis, ‘production could be as much as 70 percent higher (410,000 tons) than MY 2010/11 (243,588 tons), reaching record levels not seen since MY 2006/07’. Local farmers remain interested in buying the Compagnie

Malienne pour le Développement des Textiles (CMDT). The handover of privatized companies in the Western and Southern regions to the Chinese company Yue Mei ‘is still expected to be finalized by December 2011,’ although USDA suggests the deal still may not go ahead.

In Chad, restructuring of the cotton sector continues. While the government hopes to see production of 60,000 tonnes of seed cotton, USDA believes that production is likely to be only 40,000 tonnes.

In Senegal, abnormal rains are likely to reduce projected cotton production to 20,000 tonnes (from a target of 50,000 tonnes), despite a 24% increase in farm gate prices and the maintenance of input subsidies. Despite the rise in prices paid to producers, production stagnated as a result of farmers mobilizing more slowly than expected, as a result of outstanding payments not having been resolved

CTA

Bank is committed to financing West African commerical agriculture, but not biofuels

Standard Chartered Bank says it will focus more resources to financing agriculture within countries in the West Africa sub-region with Ghana and Nigeria being prime targets but rule out any support for biofuel production.

“We are looking at and will devote some resources and shift to agriculture in West Africa but the banks policies are clear on biofuel and its effects on food security,” Mr Dan Mobley, Regional Head of Corporate Affairs, Stanchart said at a meeting with a cross-section of journalists to mark the end of his visit to Accra.

The bank, which has already devoted three billion dollars to financing agriculture, currently focuses its activities in countries in the Southern Africa region.

Mr Mobley said although the focus of operations would be on commercial farmers, the bank was exploring the possibility to partner governments to develop innovative schemes for small holder farmers to enhance food security.

He said it was an exciting time to explore opportunities in Africa as investors were more focused on the continent as forecast had shown that seven countries on the continent would be among the 10 fastest growing economies over the next years.

“This growth is not only driven by commodities but is broad based and sustainable,” he said.

Mr Mobley said key growth poles would be agriculture financing since a large percentage of the arable land is yet to be put under cultivation, infrastructure project and increasing demand of consumers for sophisticated financial services.

It is estimated that about 75 per cent of the continent’s growth will come from the agricultural sector.

However, Mr Mobley said, governments on the continent must do more to attract investment into agriculture through building the necessary linkages in infrastructure and undertaking reforms to help boost production.

He said the bank is also in a unique position to explore the explosive growth in trade between Africa and Asia, adding that the Asia-African trade corridor was important for growth.

Ghana is Stanchart’s second largest market in Africa.

Accra Mail

West Africa plans to enhance livestock trade and security

by Henry Neondo

Ministers charged with livestock, trade and security in the Economic Commission of West African States, ECOWAS, are expected to endorse the draft Strategic Plan for the Development and Transformation of the Livestock Sector when they meet in Bamako, Mali on March 10.

The strategic plan is designed for the transformation and economic value addition to the cattle, meat and dairy sub-sector in ECOWAS, a 15-member regional economic community for West African countries.

The plan aims to provide sustainable food security, reduce poverty and provide decent income for those working in the sector while preserving natural resources.

More specifically, it aims to improve production systems and support product transformation, provide food security from livestock products, reduce poverty, provide decent incomes to producers, preserve indigenous livestock genetic resources as well as improve veterinary governance.

The ministers meeting is being preceded by a session of experts, who are fulfilling a ministerial directive from a meeting in Niamey, Niger in February 2009 that the ECOWAS Commission draw up a specific strategy for the development of livestock farming as part of the framework for the implementation of the ECOWAS Agricultural Policy (ECOWAP).

The ministers’ guidelines include strengthening of veterinary governance, support of production and gradual intensification of production systems, promotion and/or enhancement of intra-regional and international trade in livestock, meat and dairy, improvement of pastures and protection of grazing lands-transhumance routes and promotion of public-private partnerships.

They also include strengthening of data collection, management and dissemination structures, strengthening of research and training as well as supporting the transformation of products, using science and technology.

At the opening of the experts meeting on Monday March 7, 2011 in Bamako, the ECOWAS Commissioner for Agriculture, Environment and Water Resources, Mr. Ousseini Salifou, highlighted the importance of the livestock sector which, he said, contributes about 44 per cent to the region’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and provides livelihood for millions of people in the region.

He said it was in acknowledgement of the importance of livestock sector that the regional ministers called for a strategic plan to be developed so as to beef up the various components of the sector.

The Commissioner also referred to the ECOWAS Regional Animal Health Centre in Bamako and expressed the hope that the centre would become a specialized animal health institution for West Africa.

Mrs. Diallo Madeleine Ba, Minister of Livestock and Fisheries of Mali expressed the importance of livestock in Mali’s economy, disclosing that Mali had a population of nine million bovine, 11.8 million sheep, 16 million goats and 35 million poultry, contributing some 30 per cent of the country’s livelihood.

She reiterated the critical importance of the sector in the region, hence the decision of the Niamey meeting of ministers to develop a strategic action plan for the development and transformation of the livestock sector.

The Minister also commented on the contributions made by the Regional Animal Health Centre to the animal health delivery services in the region, and added that it was part of the commitment of the Government of Mali to give the centre a working framework to promote poverty reduction, food security and economic growth.

Dr. Ibrahim Gashash Ahmed, Director in the Nigerian Federal Department of Livestock, who represented his country’s minister responsible for Agriculture and rural development said it was gratifying that ECOWAS was developing a master plan for the development of the livestock sector in the region and called for uniformity of actions as well as compliance with ECOWAS regulations for the success of the plan.

Regional experts say, despite its creation more than 30 years ago, ECOWAS’s policy environment—particularly it’s poorly-designed and inadequately-implemented policies—remains one of the major contributors to the high cost of conducting business in West Africa.

They say there exists a gap between the ECOWAS free trade provisions and the policy-related constraints faced on a daily basis by traders and transporters of livestock within the region.

According to the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), livestock trade policies differ widely between countries in West Africa.

Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are livestock exporting countries, and want to strengthen livestock marketing and processing and promote regional trade.

Livestock importing countries such as Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria, promote policies that protect local livestock producers, boost internal production, and ensure food security in livestock products.

A recently released report investigating livestock policies in six West African countries has urged that regional policies be streamlined, harmonised and implemented in a coordinated way to avoid bureaucratic bottlenecks.

The report also noted that transportation of livestock across borders and illegal “taxes” represent significant additional marketing costs that impact negatively on regional livestock trade.

ILRI says cross-border transportation in West Africa can cost a staggering 300 per cent more than the equivalent transfer of beef from Europe to West Africa’s coast. Meantime, regional cross-border transfer of cattle costs twice as much as domestic transportation, despite better transportation infrastructures.

Intra-regional trade in live animals attracts certain costs which are unlikely to be incurred if meat products are traded.

For example, livestock drovers (people who drive herds of animals to market) are paid handling fees during the 2-3 day trip.

“Some governments in the region are not fully committed to the implementation of agreed trade policy reforms concerning trade liberalisation and facilitation, exchange and payments systems and investment facilitation. This negatively affects costs of livestock trade and regional integration”, says ILRI.

Illegal road taxation at numerous checkpoints can be as much as 10 per cent of total marketing costs. Here, traders are required to make non-receipted payments to public agents for no obvious reason.

News from Africa

West Africa discuss conflicts between pastoralists and settler/farmer communities

Seven member states of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), including Ghana, are to adopt a common resolution towards addressing the emerging conflicts between pastoralists, mostly Fulanis, and their host communities.

This follows the realisation that these conflicts have become an international phenomenon in the West African sub-region, particularly in the countries the Fulani herdsmen have found as suitable destinations for their activities.

The other countries are Burkina Faso, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger and Nigeria.

Representatives of these countries met recently in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, to strategise on a common mechanism to resolve these conflicts which have been recognised as an emerging threat to peace and security in the sub-region.

The two-day Consultative Meeting on Agriculture and Pastoralist Conflicts in West Africa, which opened February 22, was organised by the West African Network for Peace-building (WANEP), with funding from the Finnish Government.

Participants comprised chiefs, agriculturists, security and conflict resolution experts and political leaders.

Speaking at the opening of the meeting, the Executive Director of WANEP, Mr Emmanuel Bombande, said countries in West Africa could not claim to be unperturbed by the menace of the conflicts due to their threat to internal and external security.

“Not only have these conflicts between pastoralists and farmers become an in-country problem; they have also become a problem between countries,” he noted.

Mr Bombande said the conflicts between farmers and pastoralists had to do with access to natural resources, particularly land and water. He said factors such as population growth and climate change posed a great threat to agriculture and would thus deepen the conflict between pastoralists and farmers as they struggled to gain control over the earth and its resources. He pointed out that it was high time Africa took a serious look at those conflicts because about 60 per cent of its people lived in rural areas and depended largely on agriculture.

“If agriculture fails, Africa will be plunged into crisis. Already, there is increasing rural-urban drift due to the declining interest of the youth in agriculture,” Mr Bombande cautioned.

The Chairperson of WANEP Burkina Faso, Prof Albert Ouadraogo, noted that it was time for Africa to find a lasting and satisfactory solution to those conflicts before allowing them to rise above control. “Through dialogue, we should be able to chart a common agenda towards resolving these conflicts in a manner that will be satisfactory to both sides,” he stated.

It has been noted that the movement of pastoralists from the Sahel to the south of West Africa is largely precipitated by the increasing demand for fresh grazing grounds, as the Sahel has been hit by droughts.
Consequently, the Fulani herdsmen move down south and are attracted to the area by the hospitality of the people and the availability of pasture.

However, the herdsmen have run into troubles with the local people in recent years because of complaints that the cattle herded by the Fulani are destroying crops, while some of the herdsmen are allegedly involved in cattle rustling.

In Ghana, there have also been concerns over environmental degradation and criminal activities by some immigrant pastoralists.

Accra Mail

US cotton lobby bids for African support

West African cotton growers have long accused US subsidies of impeding international competition in the cotton marketplace. Now American cotton growers are discussing how to convince African cotton farmers that they are not the problem and that Brazil, India and China are.

Growers, experts and distributors are meeting at the Beltwide Cotton Conferences in New Orleans from 4-7 January.

“The cotton-producing countries in west Africa should align themselves with the United States in the push for reduced import trade barriers in key importing countries,” the leaders of the National Cotton Council, the US cotton lobby, wrote in a letter in December.


Countries like Burkina Faso, Mali and even Chad have long complained of US cotton subsidies putting them out of business. In five years, west African cotton production has gone down by half, and is now at about 500,000 tonnes per year.
The NCC says that the problem is not the US. Rather, it blames African inefficiency and the rising threats of growing cotton giants Brazil, India and China.

But Jean-Pierre Boris, who follows commodities for RFI, writes in his blog that this is a specious argument. It is impossible to group the 25,000 US cotton growers with the millions of small African farmers, he says.

“How do you compare the US subsidies, even if there are reforms, with the sale price that African growers get?” he asks.

Boris says that African farmers are subsistence farmers, while US farmers can switch from one crop to another if the price of cotton goes down. He compares the American cotton lobby’s attempt at seducing African cotton growers to Brazil getting African farmers to fight US cotton subsidies just a few years ago.

“We know the result,” he writes. “The World Trade Organisation condemned the Americans, compensated the Brazilians. And as for African cotton, it was sentenced to an inexorable decline.”

Radio France Internationale

Centuries-long drought almost inevitable in West Africa, say researchers

by Richard Black

Severe droughts lasting centuries have happened often in West Africa's recent history, and another one is almost inevitable, researchers say.

Analysis of sediments in a Ghanaian lake shows the last of these "megadroughts" ended 250 years ago. But, they say, the droughts are going to happen again anyway, and societies should begin planning for them.

Writing in the journal Science, the researchers suggest man-made climate change may make the situation worse.

"It's disconcerting - it suggests we're vulnerable to a longer-lasting drought than we've seen in our lifetime," said Tim Shanahan from the University of Texas in Austin, who led the research team. "If the region were to shift into one of these droughts it would be very difficult for people to adapt; and we need to develop an adaptation policy."

The region's most recent dry episode was the Sahel drought which claimed at least 100,000 lives, perhaps as many as one million, in the 1970s and 80s.

But the historical "megadroughts" were longer-lasting and even more devoid of precipitation, the researchers found.

Deep impact The evidence comes from Lake Bosumtwi in southern Ghana, a deep lake formed in a meteorite impact crater. Sediments laid down each year form neat, precise layers. "Nothing lives at the bottom of the lake, so nothing disturbs these layers," said Professor Shanahan. "Most lakes have this seasonal deposition, but it's rare in the tropics to find a lake where the bottom is undisturbed." Wet and dry years are distinguished by the ratio of two oxygen isotopes in the sediment.

Droughts lasting a few decades occur regularly over the 3,000 years contained in this record.

They appear to be linked to the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), a natural climatic cycle in which sea surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic Ocean vary over time.

The Sahel drought coincided with a cool phase of the AMO. This changes wind patterns, and decreases the strength of the monsoon rains in this region.

However, the cause of the longer, multi-century droughts is not clear.

"That's one of the scary aspects - we have no idea what causes them," said Jonathan Overpeck from the University of Arizona, who oversaw the research effort.

"In Africa, we could cross the threshold, driving the system into one of these droughts, without even knowing why."

Money flows

Michael Schlesinger, who first characterised the AMO a decade ago but was not involved in the current study, suggested a similarity between the outlook for West Africa and the southwestern portion of the US.

There, research has also shown a history of shorter and longer droughts.

"There are two things that need to be done, one of which California and Arizona and so on have done - and that is put in the water collection and distribution infrastructure to deal with the short periods of not very intense water stress," the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign scientist told BBC News.

"What West Africa won't handle - and neither will California - is the 100-year-long, deep megadrought.

"The only way I can see of dealing with that is desalination; if push comes to shove and these megadroughts appear - and they will, and it'll probably be exacerbated by man-made global warming - that will be the only thing to do."

Whereas the southwestern US could afford desalination, it is not clear that West African countries could - nor do they all have the infrastructure to move water inland.

The possibility of man-made climate change causing worse droughts is an example of the impacts that many developing countries fear, and which causes them to seek money from richer countries to protect their societies and economies.

Professor Schlesinger is at one with Tim Shanahan's team in suggesting that human-induced climate change would be likely to make droughts more severe, although computer models of climate produce varying projections for rainfall change over the West African region.

But even without changing the chances of drought, rising temperatures worsen the region's outlook, suggested Professor Overpeck.

"Even if we were able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions somewhat, we would still probably have warming in this region of about 2-4C over the century, and that could make droughts much harder to adapt to when they occur," he said.

"What it's pointing to is the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; but you can't do it all with mitigation, just as you can't do it all with adaptation."

BBC

Tiny fonio cereal may hold big answers in food crisis

Despite growing for centuries in some of the driest, toughest agricultural zones of West Africa, the fonio cereal has been neglected by most agricultural development programmes, according to the World Bank. But skyrocketing rice price increases that have slammed rice-dependent West Africa and declining profits in other cash crops like cotton have some local producers turning back to the ancient cereal.

But Olivier Durand with the World Bank in Mali said fonio has some hurdles to clear before reaching store shelves: “Its main drawback is the very difficult post-harvest process, as it is a very small grain. There's a market for pre-cooked fonio, but prices are still pretty high due to the low productive post-harvest process.”

The average cost for a 1-kg package of pre-cooked fonio is US$2, twice as much as raw fonio, according to the US-funded Economic Growth Programme, which is trying to revive fonio production in Senegal. This price is about as twice as expensive as one kilo of the more commonly-consumed, but less protein-packed, rice.

The UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) estimates an annual production of about 250,000 tons of fonio grown on 380,000 hectares of land in lead-producing country Guinea, followed by Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast.

But producers in other countries are trying to get in.

In Senegal, the mostly female cooperative, Yakaar Niani Wulli [the hope of villages Niani and Wulli, in the national Wolof language] of small-scale farmers in southern Senegal has been trying to plant and sell fonio.

The cereal fell out of vogue when families had more money to buy rice imports, said organic food biochemist Malik N’diaye with the Senegalese non-profit Environment, Development Action in the Third World (ENDA).

Because of its smaller-than-couscous size, de-husking and cleaning can take up to five poundings, an estimated one hour to mill less than 2kg. Fonio evokes rural images of a woman standing over a mortar pounding the seeds with sand, and then – sometimes unsuccessfully – separating sand from the grains.

But the World Bank’s Durand said relief is on the way: “New techniques will improve the productivity while reducing the work hardship for women.” He added the food crisis may give overlooked cereals like fonio more attention. “My fear with fashion and ‘revivals,’ he said, “[is] that one will consider this is one [and only] solution, the key revolution and miracle, [but it is]…one among other solutions to the food security issue.”

FAO reports rice prices quadrupling worldwide in the past two years. In West Africa, only Burkina Faso is a cereal exporter, according to the 2008 Global Hunger Index, which stated hunger levels are higher in sub-Saharan Africa than anywhere else in the world.

ENDA’s Ndiaye told IRIN this is the same area where fonio freely grows: “Fonio can grow in arid zones, a plus for the drought and famine-prone Sahel.”

Finding a market

In 2007, the US-based Economic Growth Programme facilitated a tasting event of organic fonio in Koussanar, the Senegalese rural birthplace of the cereal located about 400km east of the capital Dakar. An American export company bought two tons of the pre-cooked fonio cereal from the federation, which was the federation’s lone export last year.

The production group is expected to harvest 20 tons from 60 hectares in 2008, with 10 tons to be sold and the other half reserved for local consumption.

The federation of about 2,000 members is trying to buy a husking machine to make their work quicker and to increase production, according to ENDA.

ENDA’S N’diaye told IRIN the time has come for people both in and out of West Africa to rethink the cereal: “It may be arcane because it has been around for so long, but it has medicinal properties able to fight diabetes, which has sparked recent interest.”

According to the French agricultural research centre working for international development (CIRAD), fonio is an amino-packed, easily digestible, easy-to-grow desert food.

N’diaye said locally, fonio is known mostly as the first dish a newlywed wife is required to cook for her husband. But it could be much more, he said: “It should also be known as a nutritious, protein-packed organic speciality good. It is old, but also new.”

IRIN

Benin cuts cotton harvest forecast further

Benin's 2008/09 cotton crop will fall short of forecasts that have already been revised downwards due to bad weather, a government official said on September 19.

The harvest in the West African country was estimated at more than 310,000 tonnes, which would exceed last year's crop of 268,054 tonnes, but be well below the original forecast of 500,000 tonnes which was then cut to 384,000 tonnes.

"The performance of cotton production compared with the forecasts is predominantly due to weather conditions," said Aly Bouco Imorou, Secretary General of the agriculture ministry.

Benin is one of West Africa's leading cotton produces, but its harvests have recently been much lower than its estimated 600,000 tonne capacity. Cotton cultivation in the region is suffering from high fertiliser costs and bad weather.

Mali estimates it will produce less than half a previous estimate, Ivory Coast is expected to fall short of 250,000 tonne estimate, and Central African Republic last year produced less than 1,000 tonnes.

In May this year, Benin's President Thomas Boni Yayi, who has pledged to revitalise the former French colony's economy, raised the mandatory farm-gate purchase price to 210 CFA francs per kg for the 2008/09, up from 180 CFA francs in an effort to stimulate growth.

Benchmark cotton prices as set in New York closed at 64.55 cents per lb on Friday, having lost 10 percent in the past twelve months. Global production is forecast at 24.7 million tonnes by industry group the International Cotton Advisory Committee.

Reuters

Sorghum, millet yield prospects for West Africa are good

Overall yield prospects for sorghum and millet are good in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Guinea, Mali and Nigeria, where outputs of +2% to +7% above the 5 yr average are anticipated.

However there are local differences within these countries. In Chad, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast and Togo, the overall yield prospects are also positive with an estimated surplus of about +4% relative to the 5 yr mean. In Sierra Leone and Liberia, crop yield prospects are close to average (0%-1%), but somewhat less (-1 and -3%) than 2007 yields

In Burkina Faso, water availability for the crops was very good in north-eastern provinces like Ganzourgou and Gnagna, parts of Sourou, Yatenga, Soum and Oudalan at the border with Mali have a drier than normal season. Also Poni, and some parts of Comoe have a drier than normal growing season.

In the neighboring Upper West province of Ghana, yield prospects are good in the northern part but low in the southern part. In Northern province, prospects are generally good, except for the southeastern part where lower than normal yields are expected.

In Guinea, overall production will be very good in Labe. In Kankan, the output is beneficial in a large part in the west but decreased output is seen in small areas in the north, southeast and the centre. In Kindia province, the water availability is good in the north but below average in the south.

In Ivory Coast, prospects are above average at provincial level in Katiola, Korhogo and Mankono, other parts of the country show minor (-0.5%) yield decreases. In the main growing areas of Bouna increases of 4.5% are expected.

In Mali, very good yields are expected at the northern border of the growing areas in Kayes, \ with surpluses of 15% in some parts while in the south prospects are less favourable. Especially the north-west of Koulikoro is dryer than before, while in the south and central part the water availability is better than the 5 years average and better than the previous year. In Kayes, the northeastern part experiences dryer conditions than normal but the situation is better than in 2007.

In Nigeria, well above average yields (10%) are expected in northern parts of the country, in Taraba, Kebbi and the south of Adamwara province. The centre of Niger province shows minor yield decreases while in other parts above average yields are expected. Reduced crop yields are seen in the east of Kano, the south of Yobe, the west of Benue and the north of Adamware. Declined production is also noted in the Delta province, Anambra and Rivers.

EARS

Dubai conglomerate to embark on rice farming in West Africa

Stallion Group, one the largest regional conglomerates in West Africa, has started a major rice farming project that entails an indigenous production and milling of 2.25 million tonnes of rice per annum in Nigeria and a further 500,000 tonnes per annum in Ghana.

The investment also covers investment towards a 700,000 tonnes fertiliser plant, farming equipment, tractors and transportation vehicles assembly plant, rice milling machinery, logistics infrastructure and all other accessories related to rice production and milling. The project value is expected to be around $1.20 billion and is being developed under the auspices of the ministry of agriculture and water resources (Nigeria).

The federal ministry of agriculture continues to indicate that Nigeria can be self-sufficient in rice production, as virtually all-ecological zones in the country are suitable for rice cultivation. The Federal Government is reported to be holding a 30 percent equity stake in the venture and has actively facilitated the participation of state governments.

Sayyadi Abba Ruma, minister of agriculture and water resources, in an interview, confirmed government’s intention to focus on rice production, livestock and fisheries, to boost food security.
Ruma said currently, the country spends about $267 million annually on the importation of over two million metric tonnes of rice, while it produces only a mere 300 thousand metric tonnes, representing 0.96 percent of the global production.

For the Dubai-based Stallion Group, this is a natural progression into the development into large scale farming from being an established player in agri-business for the past many years. The multi-billion dollar group owned by the Vaswani brothers, Sunil, Haresh and Mahesh, has a global presence in 18 countries in addition to the strong presence in most West African countries including Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Cameroon and Angola.

The annual demand in the country exceeds seven million tonnes with an estimated shortfall of three million tonnes. Nigeria’s rice production in 2008/09 is forecast at 3.1 million tonnes, up from 3.0 million tons in 2007/08. The government has stressed to rice farmers, processors and marketers the need to produce high quality rice in order to enhance consumer acceptance. The expansion of domestic rice milling is also supporting these efforts to boost production.

As part of a backward integration programme, a few companies are at various stages of developing nucleus estates that would use local farmers as out growers to supply rice to the mills. It is anticipated that this will encourage more farmers to expand into rice production.

Stallion has taken a lead in driving a major initiative aimed a alleviating the critical problem of food shortage in the country and is associating with some globally renowned companies like Asia Golden Rice (Thailand),Capital Rice (Thailand), KRBL (India) to deliver what would be a project of unprecedented proportions in Nigeria. The group is also reported to have finalised a 500,000 tonnes per annum project in Ghana with Rice Mills in Tema.

Having already established the largest state-of-the-art rice mill in West Africa, Stallion is aiming to establish a wider presence across all the rice producing states through a fully integrated farming programme.

The programme envisages establishment of an installed capacity of 2.25 million tonnes of parboiled paddy, thus resulting in backward integration of 400,000 hectares of land under rice cultivation. The expansion of procurement and distribution network to several states in Nigeria will be implemented under the project. Stallion has reportedly finalised contract farming models within the respective states that involves procurement, production, distribution, trading and contract farming infrastructure.

Business Day Nigeria

Nigeria takes measures to deal with food crisis

Nigeria, Africa's biggest importer of rice, plans to buy 500,000 tons of rice amid a global grain shortage. The purchase was approved during a meeting of President Umaru YarAdua and the governors of Nigeria's 36 states.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says Nigeria will import 4.5 million tons of cereal, mostly wheat and rice, in 2008 to bridge the shortfall caused by poor harvests.

Producer prices of staples such as millet, maize and sorghum have increased 100 to 200 percent during the past year.

After the meeting, the governor of southeastern Akwa-Ibom state, Godswill Akpabio, said the rice imports will ease the unprecedented rise in food prices. "The rice will arrive at about 5,000 naira [about $41] per bag or even less, and so those who are hoarding and attempting to sell at 10,000 [$82] or 12,000 [$100] will have no option than to bring the rice to the market and ensure that the people get it at a reasonable price," he explained.

Food riots have broken out in more than a dozen African countries in recent months, prompting concern in Nigeria, one of the continent's most volatile countries. Police in the northern city of Kano recently stopped a rally against soaring food prices.

The governor of Ogun state in the southwest, Segun Agagu, says the meeting also agreed on measures to boost food production and reduce dependence on imports. "Federal government will work through the ministry of agriculture and water resources and co-ordinate the states and research institutes to ensure that in the medium to long-term, Nigeria produces not only enough food for herself, but should be in a position to export food," he said.

The Nigerian government last month ordered the release of 65,000 tons of food from strategic reserves to help curb rising prices.

Experts predict the food crisis in West Africa could deepen in the coming months as reserve food stocks run out and prices climb.

VOA

West African shea butter production increases

Three years ago, Jacob Shinka first heard the English word for kadanya or maikade, the shea butter mixed into soap and used in cooking during his childhood in Nigeria’s Kebbi State. He also began learning about shea butter’s export potential and began attending Trade Hub workshops in Ghana and Nigeria to gain the knowledge needed to launch his own shea enterprise.

Today, Shinka’s Meena Agro Oil is benefiting from a swiftly rising tide of global interest in edible and cosmetic shea, which is spurring investment, new business and grass-roots education across West Africa – as well as government evaluations of shea’s value to national economies.

Shea nut exports from West Africa now total an estimated $100 million, said the Hub’s shea specialist, Dr. Peter Lovett – who first began tracking sales 15 years ago. In 1994, only 50,000 tons were exported at an average $150/ton, bringing in less than $10 million to the region. Prices have increased – in Ghana, the current average is $400/ton – as have volumes: this year’s estimated crop is 250,000 tons. Yet shea is still cheaper than other vegetable fats, such as cocoa, the price of which peaked at over $3,000/ton in recent months.

This largely explains shea’s popularity: The bulk of West African shea nuts and butter still goes to Europe, where it’s used as a less expensive alternative to cocoa butter in chocolate and pastries. Shinka sells his butter to one of the world’s largest providers of agricultural products through a London-based trading house. Last year, he shipped 120 metric tons, he said; this year, he has a contract for 1,000 tons.

“They said they want to test our capacity for producing high quantities of high-quality butter,” Shinka said. “As much as we can produce, they will buy.”

Yet Shinka learned the hard way that volume isn’t enough. In late 2006, he leased a factory in Nigeria, which mechanically processed seven tons of shea butter a day. But the quality was so poor that the buyer reduced the price and threatened to cancel the contract altogether. Shinka went back to villages, which have traditionally produced high-quality shea – as long as they follow improved processing procedures.

With guidance from the Hub including on-the-ground assistance from Lovett, Shinka has trained hundreds of rural women on proper nut selection, sun-drying and keeping impurities out of the final product. Today, he collects butter from a network of 100 women’s cooperatives in Kebbi State and transports it by refrigerated truck to a warehouse in Lagos. Quality remains high, even as quantities increase, thanks to the emphasis on training along the entire value chain – a key lesson from the Hub’s workshops, studies and export guides.

The Hub has organized shea-quality trainings in rural Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Ghana, Nigeria and Mali, sometimes in cooperation with the U.S. Peace Corps. Most recently in mid-March, Lovett joined a group of Peace Corps Mali volunteers and counterparts in Burkina Faso, where cosmetic-grade shea butter is sold to European cosmetics giant L’Occitane. The group came to observe shea processing facilities there, which are increasingly organized and professional. Processing centers featured clean warehouses, uniformed staff and high-quality containers for the butter – one also housed a nursery school, garden and laboratory. Several have begun producing organic along with conventional butter. One group, UGPPK in Leo, has received both organic and fair-trade certification.

“These places have come up in leaps and bounds in the past three years,” Lovett said.

Buyers are increasingly demanding such certifications, as seven West African shea producers discovered in March at the Natural Products Expo West in California, one of the cosmetic industry’s leading tradeshows. The Hub’s bamboo-walled West African pavilion in the “Hot New Products” section introduced exporters to wholesalers, distributors, brokers and traders, as well as the full retail spectrum: supermarkets, pharmacies, co-ops and ethnic shops, among others. Exporters from Burkina Faso, Ghana and Senegal made a total of 228 contacts, including such large retailers as Burt’s Bees, who were primarily interested in fair-trade certified bulk butter. Smaller retailers expressed more interest in pure unrefined butter for skin and lip care. Demand shows no signs of cooling: The newest U.S. trend in shea is a dietary supplement to soothe arthritis and joint discomfort.

Back in West Africa, governments are focusing more on shea as a player in economic growth. Shea is Burkina’s largest agricultural export after cotton, for instance, and both that country and Mali have developed national strategies for the crop, including research to develop better crops and extension services to share knowledge with farmers and grass-roots producers. Ghana recently formed a national steering committee on shea to help plan the growth and sustainability of the industry.

Meanwhile, Shinka continues to improve the industry in Nigeria, helping to organize an April workshop along with the Shea Butter Processors and Producers/Marketers Association, Niger State’s Ministry of Commerce and GTZ, the German development agency.

Vanessa Adams, the Trade Hub’s director of enterprise development, said the industry is maturing and developing different production levels, pulling new players like Shinka and creating jobs and investments across the region.

“Not only is the shea export business booming but there is increased interest in investing in industrial processing and cosmetic production in West Africa,” Adams said.

West Africa Trade Hub

George W. Bush tells African cotton producers U.S. subsidies are none of their business

President George W. Bush told West Africa's cotton producers that US subsidies to American cotton growers were a matter for Washington, Benin's President Boni Yayi said on February 19.

Yayi was speaking at a joint press conference with Bush, who spent three hours in the small west African country at the beginning of a five-nation tour of the continent.

Bush "considers that the question of these subsidies was an American matter, and told me that he was well aware of the importance of this sector in the life of our people," Yayi said.

The US leader advised West African countries to grow cotton and process it for added value.

Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali have been battling at the World Trade Organisation for an end to export subsidies and other incentives provided by western industrialised countries, particularly the United States, to their cotton farmers.

A US official said Washington was appealing a WTO ruling upholding Brazil's complaint that US farm subsidies, particularly to cotton growers, violate global trade rules. The United States claims it is now in full compliance with the WTO's earlier recommendations and rulings.

Agriculture is a main sticking point in the six-year-old Doha Round of WTO trade negotiations.

The United States and the European Union are under pressure to cut their farm subsidies but demand in return that other WTO members, notably developing nations like Brazil and India, reduce their tariffs on imported industrial goods.

Africasia

Italy funds FAO agro-projects in West Africa

The Italian government is to provide $10 million for a new initiative to help fund agricultural projects in five African countries.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced the funding boost, saying it would aim to revive agricultural output and create new marketing opportunities for African farmers.

The countries of Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Senegal and Sierra Leone, will benefit from the aid package. The funding is part of a commitment by the Italian government to give $100 million to the FAO's trust fund for food security. A total of $75.7 million has been spent to date.

“These projects target food insecurity, taking into account the complex nature of its causes and offering a variety of options for overcoming it," said FAO assistant director-general José María Sumpsi, from the agency’s technical cooperation department. “Priorities have been identified together with national governments.”

The FAO said a key element in each project will be training and apprenticeship activities for local producers’ associations, delivered via farmer field schools. These will teach farmers how to store and conserve products so that they are not forced to sell all their crops straight after harvest.

“In countries where between 40 and 50 percent of the adult population has never been to school, farmers will learn more efficient agricultural practices, but also how to set up a small enterprise, how to make the most of the few resources they have available and how to produce value-added agricultural products for the market,” said Kevin Gallagher, a senior FAO expert for programme development.

In Mali, the FAO said the underlying causes of the difficult situation lie not in conflicts but in a general weakening of the country’s economy. Poor harvests, inadequate rainfall and increasing desertification have all taken a heavy toll, the FAO said.

In all five countries, the projects will focus on agriculture as a major tool for reducing poverty and increasing food security. But they also recognise that boosting output alone is not enough, and that any strategy must include initiatives to improve the commercialisation of products.

This new initiative in West Africa follows a number of other FAO/Italy projects already under way in Central and East Africa (Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda) and in Southern Africa (Malawi and Zambia).

ADN Kronos

Dollar depreciation affects West African cotton farmers' earnings

The U.S. dollar's record plunge is adding to the hardships of African cotton growers like Farba Boiro, separating them from home and threatening their ability to continue farming in a region where a third of the population subsists on less than $1 a day.

Boiro, a 30-year-old farmer from southern Senegal, couldn't afford to plant this year. With cotton selling for about 9 percent less than a decade ago, he already spent nine months a year working at odd jobs in Dakar, the capital, or in neighboring Gambia. This year's dollar slide made even three months at home with his son and other relatives impossible.

"The money we get isn't enough to support my family,'' Boiro says, leaning against the wall of a tin building on the outskirts of Dakar, about 340 kilometers (210 miles) northwest of his village, Sare Ndiaye. "Some people end up with nothing at the end of the year.''

Cotton from companies like Burkina Faso's Sofitex and Cameroon's Sodecoton is bought and sold on the world market in U.S. dollars. Farmers are paid in CFA francs, the euro-pegged local currency of 14 western and central African countries. Compared with a year ago, the dollars their crops fetch in world markets buy about 9 percent fewer CFA francs for food and shelter.

While cotton prices have risen about 13 percent this year, "the appreciation of the CFA franc has offset the benefits,'' according to Stephane Alby, an economist at BNP Paribas SA, France's biggest bank. Most of the region's "cotton producers are now on the verge of operating at a loss and sinking into debt,'' Alby wrote in October. "Meanwhile, the main ginning and marketing companies have chalked up heavy losses over the last two seasons, of which a large part has been supported by the government.''

Cotton accounts for 5 to 8 percent of gross domestic product across West Africa, according to the World Bank. Rural areas in the Sahel, the region that stretches across the continent from Senegal, Gambia and Guinea-Bissau, can be entirely dependent on it because few other crops grow there, says Terry Townsend, executive director of the International Cotton Advisory Committee, a Washington-based association of cotton-producing and consuming countries.

The countries that link themselves to the euro in what is known as the franc zone are mostly former French colonies, including Senegal, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso, which were granted independence in 1960. Together, they are home to about 115 million people.

The fixed exchange rate has created stability, curbed inflation and bolstered confidence among foreign investors, says Jean-Paul Azam, an economist at the University of Toulouse in France who has published books on the region. "For 30 years, the result has been strong growth and expansion in industry,'' Azam says. "Stability for these countries is more important than trying to acquire a little more competitiveness.''

The link can also slow growth when the euro rises. The region, Sub-Saharan Africa's fastest-growing area during the 1990s, has been its slowest since 2004, according to the World Bank. The CFA franc has followed the euro up about 57 percent against the dollar since U.S. President George W. Bush took office in January 2001 as investors seek better returns outside the U.S.

The dollar's decline has been a boon to U.S. exporters, including Nike Inc. and Colgate-Palmolive Co. and helped narrow the U.S. trade deficit 0.6 percent in September.

For people in the poorest countries, a shift in the exchange rate can eliminate a month's food, says Daniel Sumner, an economist at the University of California, Davis, who wrote a study on cotton subsidies for Oxfam America, a Boston-based aid group. Fifty dollars can be "enough to feed a child for a year,'' he said. "It's enough to pay the school fees for three to four children.''

Payments to farmers from cotton companies in western Africa have fallen an average 15 percent since 2004, International Cotton Advisory Committee data show. Production in western and central Africa may decline 21 percent this year, according to Dagris SA, a Paris-based company owned by the French government that holds stakes in African, Asian and Latin American cotton producers.

In western Africa, the decline of the cotton industry may trigger mass migration, says Amdiatou Diallo, the executive director of the National Federation of Cotton Producers in Tambacounda, Senegal. "It's certain the consequences on the younger generation will be seriously destabilizing,'' Diallo says. "People will turn to cultivating peanuts, or they will try to go overseas.''

Several of Boiro's friends from his Peul ethnic clan have already abandoned family farms to raise a decent income elsewhere. He says he never wants his son to be a farmer. "The life is too difficult,'' he says. "I prefer that he goes to Europe and becomes a footballer.''

Bloomberg

West African states to establish regional pesticide, seed, biosafety regulations

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Ministers of Food and Agriculture recently approved the establishment of a regional committee to oversee the implementation of regulations regarding the production, importation and application of pesticides in West Africa.

... a committee of experts from member states that have ratified the common regulation on pesticides and external experts, was one of the decisions of the one-day meeting of the ministers in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso that discussed ways of boosting agricultural productivity in the region.

ECOWAS said its operations would be centrally coordinated but operate from two zones - the Sahelian and humid zones - that will cater for the agricultural divide of West Africa.

".... the committee will facilitate trade in pesticides among Member States through the enforcement of regionally agreed principles, facilitate farmers` access to quality pesticides in a timely and convenient manner, ensure their judicious use, contribute to the creation of an environment conducive for private sector investment in the pesticides industry and promote private/public partnership," a statement from ECOWAS said.

It said the ministers also agreed on the ECOWAS supplementary act for the harmonisation of rules for pesticides registration in the region as well as the regulation on the harmonisation of rules governing the quality control, certification and marketing of seeds and planting materials.

The Minsters said the comprehensive regulation would ensure access to quality seed to West African farmers; facilitate local production of quality seeds as well as intra-regional trading.
"A liberalised market for seeds suitable for the region will also help contribute to improved food security and the capacity of regional farmers to compete in the global environment."

The ministers also adopted a five-year action plan for the development of biotechnology and biosafety in the region to enable regional agriculture to benefit from new agricultural technologies.

AngolaPress

U.S. cotton subsidies are both inefficient and unjust

by Mark Gerson*

In land area, the four West African countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali are about one and a half times the size of the southern United States. And when the American economic giant shuffles its feet, these distant lands feel the earthquake.

Cotton provides an example. For years, the federal government has guaranteed American cotton producers about 72 cents a pound, even though the real market price of cotton has averaged about 57 cents. The more cotton U.S. growers produce, the more they get from the government in subsidies. Since 2002, market prices haven't even covered the cost of producing cotton, but the amount of acres planted in cotton has increased because the government guarantees a higher price.

Most Americans hardly notice this economic distortion and perhaps chalk it up to typical, interest-group politics. But the effects in the cotton-growing regions ofWest Africa are dramatic.

American subsidies result in overproduction, which depresses the global price of cotton, which keeps millions of Africans on the edge of malnutrition. In some of the poorest countries on Earth, cotton farmers are some of the poorest people, earning about a dollar a day. The typical cotton-producing household has 10 members. About 40 percent of children under 5 are malnourished.

Who benefits from the current system of subsidies? About 20,000 American cotton producers, with an average annual income of more than $125,000 - a portion of which goes to hire lobbyists. And these lobbyists do their work well. Even after the World Trade Organization in 2005 found U.S. cotton supports to be illegal, Congress made only cosmetic changes in policy. And recently the compliance panel of the WTO reaffirmed that America remains in violation.

Who would benefit from a reform of subsidies? A recent report by Oxfam America...estimates that family incomes for perhaps 10 million people in West Africa would increase by 2.3 to 5.7 percent. This extra cash would feed an additional 1 million children a year, or pay the school fees for 2 million children, or allow farm families to pay for medicine and buy fertilizer to increase their yields.

An odd alliance has gathered around the cause of reform. Fiscal conservatives such as the nonprofit Citizens Against Government Waste see cotton subsidies as a market-distorting waste of public money -- reducing the target price of cotton from 72 cents to 56 cents and changing the loan rate would save the U.S. government about $1.2 billion a year. Humanitarian and faith-based groups such as Bread for the World see subsidies as an enemy of economic growth in the developing world. Both are correct. They also see this year's farm bill as the chance to reverse an inefficiency that is also an injustice. Both understand it is an uphill fight.

There is a lively intellectual debate on the causes of the most extreme forms of global poverty. In his challenging new book, "The Bottom Billion,"Oxford University professor Paul Collier details a range of "traps" that limit the potential of the poorest countries. Many of these countries have experienced internal conflict or are "cursed" by natural resources that distort their development and perversely undermine their growth. Some are landlocked nations without access to regional or global markets, while others suffer under corrupt and incompetent governments.

But whatever the ultimate reasons, at least some of this poverty exists because Congress has not acted in responsible ways on agricultural policy. So a fraction of the blame is our own. The cost to America of reforming cotton subsidies is low - a mite from a billionaire. The benefit to the world's poorest people is great. As is often the case, bad economics turns out to be bad morality.

It is the nature of American global power that an ignored amendment in a boring agricultural debate can take or save lives in a distant village, among people who will never know the names of... members of Congress leading this agriculture debate.

But the price of power is moral responsibility. And giving African farmers a chance to earn and live is one of the clearest of those responsibilities.

*Michael Gerson is the author of "Heroic Conservatism."

Washington Post

Farmer field schools emphasize local IPM knowledge in West Africa

Boureima Sawadogo,58, is one of more than a thousand irrigated-rice farmers in the village of Bama, in southwestern Burkina Faso. He can usually be found tending to his fields throughout the day, and is known by local farmers as an expert in l’agriculture durable, or sustainable agriculture.

Gingerly holding his catch by its fragile wings, he explains in a mix of French, Dioula (his native tongue) and scientific Latin, that the insect he has caught is actually a particular species of fly called Diopsis longicornis. During its larval stage, Diopsis is a potentially severe rice pest that chews its way into the stems of rice plants to pupate, terminating the plant’s ability to form grain. Along with other stem borers, particularly moths from the genera Chilo and Sesamia, these pests cause constant headaches for farmers.

Explains Sawadogo, “This pest can be easily controlled without insecticides. Farmers can transplant their rice early to avoid large populations of pests. They can also rely on ‘les amis des paysans’,” or farmers’ friends, which are present throughout their fields. As an example, Sawadogo points to one of the minute, furry, grayish spiders swimming across the surface water of his rice paddy.

“Over there, that’s a Lycosidae spider (Wolf Spider),” says the farmer. “It moves from plant to plant and climbs up to eat Diopsis eggs on the rice leaves. He is always hungry.”

Although most people associate West Africa with grain crops like sorghum and millet, rice is also extremely important for food security. In the past 30 years, demand for rice has skyrocketed, growing faster than any other grain. Today, it is the preferred food in West Africa’s cities, and in many rural areas it is a staple crop.
The devastating famines of the 1970s and '80s that swept across West Africa prompted large governmental investments into irrigation schemes intended to assure food security during droughts. Once tapped, irrigation makes the potential productivity of rice grown in these schemes very high. The alluvial sediments deposited by countless years of annual floods, heavy clay soils and high rates of sunshine make West Africa’s river valleys, or les bas-fonds, ideally suited to rice culture.
Nonetheless, the architects of West Africa’s irrigation schemes were all too willing to sacrifice sustainability in favor of productivity alone. Following the Green Revolution model of agricultural development that was popularized in Asia, “modern” farming techniques based largely on the use of agrochemicals were promoted as the key to the cultivation of Africa’s bas-fond areas. While there is little doubt these irrigation schemes benefited food security and increased the production of rice, these advancements have not come without environmental and human health costs.
Sawadogo explains how pesticides are used in his community. “Up to three times a season, farmers will drench their fields with Endosulfan. This can be very dangerous.” This insecticide can be easily purchased at rock-bottom prices in Africa’s prominent and thriving pesticide black market. “In this area,” he says, “it is the cheapest chemical we have, so farmers buy it all up.”
According to the World Health Organization, Endosulfan is an organochlorine. It is under investigation in Europe to determine its suspected status as a persistent organic pollutant, or POP. This category includes chemicals that bio accumulate in the food chain. When a POP is applied to insects in a rice field, which are then eaten in quantity by the fish that regularly swim irrigation systems looking for a meal, the chemical accumulates over time and its concentration grows by orders of magnitude in the fatty cells of the fish’s body.
The same thing happens when that fish is caught by the children of rice farmers—children who regularly search the irrigation canals to supplement their family’s otherwise grain-based diets with protein. Further, many women in Bama collect water from the irrigation canals to use for drinking and cooking. These cascading negative health impacts can be drastic—POPs are commonly detected in mothers’ breast milk. Endosulfan also has highly toxic impacts on aquatic biodiversity: in Bama, mats of dead frogs can be found floating in the corners of rice fields after it is applied.
“Rice farmers get Endosulfan from the cotton farmers,” explains Sawadogo. The chemical is supplied at subsidized rates to cotton farmers in Burkina Faso by government-funded efforts to prop up the textile industry. Because enormous volumes of the insecticide are doled out on an annual basis, most cotton farmers sell their excess into the black market. From there, it makes its way into the hands of rice farmers.
But Bama’s farmers cannot afford protective gear. Gesturing to a shirtless man carrying a pesticide pump sprayer on his bare back, Sawadogo noted “they usually apply this and other pesticides by hand while walking through their fields barefoot. Poisonings are plenty common here. It’s sad, as you really don’t even need to use these chemicals on your rice.”
Similar problems abound in rice schemes throughout Francophone West Africa. In response, the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Global Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Facility established IPM farmer field schools in the region in 1999, beginning with Mali. Rather than employing foreign consultants to organize and train farmers, the FAO encouraged farmers to meet weekly to discuss their problems and take time to observe their fields with farmer-facilitators who have been trained in locally relevant IPM methods. These trainers are usually selected because they are particularly innovative or experienced farmers.
Today, the region boasts hundreds of IPM trainers like Sawadogo. By combining their extensive practical experience in agriculture with the basics of crop ecology and entomology, their efforts are bringing about a fundamental change in how farmers view and manage their lands.
Farmer field schools were based on similar efforts that took place in Asia during the late 1980s, and specifically in Indonesia. After years of unsuccessful state-sponsored spraying of pesticides by helicopter over farmers’ rice fields to combat the brown plant hopper (Nilaparvata lugens), Indonesian researchers became convinced that plant hopper problems were actually self-inflected wounds. Because the insecticides used killed both the pest and its predators alike, the natural cycle of pest regulation by predatory insects was disrupted. This caused explosive epidemics and severe pest damage.
In an unprecedented move, the government admitted this was a serious mistake and banned 57 classes of insecticides in a single day. IPM was declared public policy, and millions of dollars of agrochemical subsidies were diverted towards sustainable agriculture programs. Further research determined that farmers learned best how to reduce pesticide use by participating in exploratory learning seminars rather than simply by being instructed by extension agents in “correct” farming methods. The Indonesian government then invited the FAO to develop these seminars and to help promote IPM, and the farmer field school approach was born.
Although this deviation from the usual, top-down approach to agricultural extension in favor of a participatory, education-based model was drastic, it generated highly promising results. More than 500,000 rice farmers took part in field schools in Indonesia throughout the 1990s. A staggering 60 percent reduction in chemical use was recorded. Across all of Asia, more than 3 million rice farmers have learned about IPM through field schools. After these successes, similar projects were initiated throughout the Middle East, Latin America and eventually in Africa.
In 2001, IPM farmer field schools were initiated in Burkina Faso, albeit with one small change. Rather than focusing solely on crop protection, the schools also focused attention on soil fertility, crop production and accounting basics, thereby providing a more complete agricultural training curriculum.
“We try to show farmers that yield is not the only thing of importance,” explained Dr. Souleymane Nacro, Burkina Faso’s FAO Farmer Field School coordinator. “When farmers learn basic cost-benefit accounting, they can see that the economic cost of pesticides often outweighs the yield gain they receive from their use.

Near Mr. Sawadogo’s rice field, a group of farmers gathers to discuss the use of a sarclure rotative, or rotary hoeing tool. This inexpensive device has been promoted by farmers throughout Asia and is now gaining popularity in Africa. It is one of the technologies that farmers in the field schools are testing and modifying to better suit local conditions. Consisting of a long handle and a metal body with two circular rows rotating of teeth, farmers push the sarclurebetween lines of transplanted rice. The farmers are enthusiastic about the push weeder. Sawadogo noted that “it saves us hours of work and it uses no chemicals at all.”
In the adjacent field, several small plots of rice are sectioned off with long sticks driven into the ground like miniature fence posts. “Those are the parcels set aside for experiments. In that one we cut off leaves of rice plants to show farmers that even if there are pests, the plant can withstand damage without reduced yields.”
Inside the fence line, rows of rice stand adjacent to each other, each with different proportions of leaves precisely removed. “This amazes farmers, because they would normally not think of or risk damaging their own plants. But here we can experiment with these techniques."
“We have learned that we could cut about half the leaves of a rice plant off during its vegetative stage without losing a single grain at harvest because the plant compensates and grows back,” Sawadogo explains. “That helps farmers to realize that they don’t need to waste their money on insecticides. Even when they have a few insects eating their rice, their yield will be the same.”
Nearby, another parcel is roped off. Several of the bushy rice plants inside are draped with mosquito netting, the bottom of which is dug deep into the soil. “That is the insect zoo,” says Sawadogo. “We encourage farmers to catch insects in their fields and then we discuss which insect might be a pest or a friend of the farmer. When there is disagreement about the insects, we put them inside the mosquito netting with a rice plant and keep them there.”
Inside the netting, several beetles and other kinds of bugs crawled about. “In that zoo, one farmer thought the beetles were pests and wanted to spray them in his field.” Sawadogo continued “…but when we put the insects inside he learned that it didn’t want to eat the rice. Instead, the insect actually ate other insects! If I had just told him it was not a pest the farmer would not have believed me,” Sawadogo claims. “But now he knows to conserve the beetles because he learned by experimenting with the insects and seeing the results himself.
“Who says that experiments are only for agronomists?”

New Farmer

West Africa's cotton countries impatient for Doha trade deal

As trade negotiators meet in Geneva on the stalled negotiations known as the Doha round, government ministers from West Africa's biggest cotton producing countries met in Burkina Faso to prepare their demands on a Doha deal.

Negotiators are expected to work over the next two weeks in Geneva on the same issues that have stalled the talks for the last two years: how much to cut farmers' subsidies, mostly in the United States and Europe, and in return, how much access that will buy those countries' industrial goods in poorer countries.

Cotton officials from Chad, Mali, Benin and Burkina Faso met to renew their campaign against foreign agricultural subsidies they say hurt their farmers and lower global cotton prices.

Burkina Faso's representative to the World Trade Organization, Moussa Niebe, says Africans are not looking for favors from rich trade partners. "This is really a problem of justice," Nebie said. We are just asking them to respect the rules of international trade, the rules of the World Trade Organization, the rules of the free market. "

Analysts say West Africa's cotton sector is near bankruptcy not only because of stalled trade talks. They point to weather, poor technology and competition from chemical fibers.

Mali's Minister of Commerce, Choguel Maiga, says the harm to American farmers from cutting subsidies would not be as great as the harm those subsidies currently cause West Africans, who he says are dependent on cotton revenue.

The International Cotton Advisory Committee, an association of 44 cotton producing countries, says up to 15 million West Africans are dependent on cotton farming.

The minister adds that even though it will be difficult for the U.S. government to cut subsidies because of the strong American cotton lobby, he says the U.S. must comply with international trade laws.

The United States has already agreed to cut major cotton subsidies by more than half to $22.5 billion a year as a result of a case brought by Brazil in the World Trade Organization. But the cut will not be fully implemented for another six years. The World Trade Organization is expected to issue a ruling later this year on whether the United States has done enough to comply.

The trade negotiations in Geneva are expected to last until the end of the month.

The Doha round is named for the capital of Qatar, where the talks began in 2001.

VOA