A decisive turn in Burkina Faso: when food sovereignty fails the farmers of Tougan
A decisive turn in Burkina Faso: when food sovereignty fails the farmers of Tougan
In Tougan, the verdict is stark. Behind the rhetoric of sovereignty, industrialisation and national production, agricultural producers say they continue to face alone a far less flattering reality: selling their harvests at a loss, repaying their credits and, at times, considering crossing the border to survive.
“Last year, the maize did well. They capped the price, and the producers made no profit. This year, others will cross the border because of the credits,” reports a testimony from Tougan. A situation summed up by a particularly revealing phrase: “The producer weeps when the harvests are good, he weeps when the harvests are bad.”
This contradiction raises a fundamental question: where has the priority given to those who feed the country gone?
The industrial narrative and its blind spots
Since coming to power, Ibrahim Traoré has regularly highlighted local production, economic sovereignty and Burkina Faso’s capacity to manufacture certain equipment itself. Announcements about industrial units, particularly those intended for the army’s needs, occupy a prominent place in this communication.
But an economy cannot be reduced to its factories or its military equipment.
While new industrial capacities are presented as symbols of sovereignty, farmers remain confronted with far more immediate problems: insufficient purchase prices, indebtedness, uncertain markets and low profitability of harvests.
Producing more only makes sense if the producer can also live from his work.
The agricultural investment trap
The problem in Tougan therefore goes beyond the simple case of maize. It raises the question of agricultural investment. What entrepreneur will durably accept to invest in a sector where a good harvest can drive prices down to the point of ruining the producer, while a bad harvest exposes him directly to indebtedness?
This is precisely where one of the great blind spots of the sovereignty narrative lies: a nation does not become economically independent solely because it manufactures its own weapons. It must also be capable of securing the incomes of those who produce its food.
The paradox is brutal. Burkina wants to produce its equipment locally, but some agricultural producers seem still to be seeking how to market their own production without losing their investment.
The fields left in the shadows
By consistently highlighting images of factories, machines and military equipment, the authorities risk leaving in the shadows another reality: that of the fields, granaries, credits and rural families waiting for concrete solutions.
Sovereignty is not measured only by what a state can manufacture for its army. It is also measured by its capacity to protect the one who, every morning, puts a seed in the ground to feed the nation.
In Tougan, the question is therefore not how many factories Burkina can inaugurate. The question is simpler, and probably more urgent: how much longer can the producer work without earning a living?
