Farmers in Burkina Faso Grow for Themselves

By Darcy Higgins

Burkina Faso is dry.

Sun-seared. Depleted. The earth sheds dust. Stunted by years of scarce rainfall, the average field of grain looks hacked-apart and brittle.

Unfortunately, the average Burkinabé makes his living farming. Around the village of Lélègsé, a little more than 30 miles to the northeast of the capital, Ouagadougou, most families try to feed themselves 12 months of the year off the harvest of 4 months. Most can't. Adequate medicine and schooling is a fantasy.

When local nongovernmental organization WendYam contacted Catholic Relief Services, CRS Burkina Faso agreed that Lélègsé was in need of help. But staff faced a conundrum that troubles every relief organization: how to feed the village without rendering it dependent on CRS forever? So they asked the community what it needed to provide for itself.

Lélègsé answered. Water.

The village believed an irrigation system held the most promise of transforming the area.

"Irrigation by using existing and available water guarantees a good harvest as compared to rain-fed crops," explains Rasmata Kontongomde, president of a local women's group. "Irrigation allows farmers to work during the dry season and therefore reduces unemployment and rural exodus."

For four months, community members met with staff from CRS Burkina Faso and WendYam under a tree to plan the best way to get water to Lélègsé.

The irrigation system needed to be small enough to be manageable for the village, while producing high yields. A local dam that hadn't been used very much in the past was brought back into use. To make sure women in the village also benefited from the plan, CRS staff convinced the leaders of the community and WendYam to give women about half of the plots of irrigated land.

Soon the perimeter of the town was surrounded by 33 acres of irrigated land — 15 for the women and 18 for the men. Each farmer received a plot of about a tenth of an acre. The unpretentious concrete ditch on the edge of town was causing fields to grow lush with tomatoes and onions. The crop yield in the irrigated fields was 80 percent greater than in untreated fields.

"With the CRS project, the net revenue per farmer ranged from $150 to $600 per year. Revenue allows households to purchase food and other basic needs [such as] school fees, medicine and lodging," Rasmata reports.

Almost all the women working the perimeter started to arrive on bicycles, and some of the men were even able to buy motorbikes, an astonishing sign of prosperity. Youth stopped leaving Burkina for work in Côte d'Ivoire. People could provide not only food, but health care and secondary school fees for their children. CRS Burkina Faso staff estimated that all of the farmers on the perimeter reached at least double the poverty line, a drastic change for a population with essentially no revenue in the past.

The project has also caused greater social cohesion and solidarity within the village setting, as residents meet regularly to discuss problems and support each other.

Sustainable Water

The way the community has continued to sustain and improve upon the original program turned it into a model for future projects. The first irrigation system was partially managed by CRS until it was turned over to the village in 1999. Today, the project is still in full operation without any additional funds or support from CRS. From beginning to end, community members took responsibility for planning and managing the irrigated land. Even in the years after CRS left Lélègsé, the training in agriculture and marketing techniques the agency provided meant workers were able to create a collaborative fundraising system to replace a depleted motor pump, reliably supply seeds every year, and even survive ravenous swarms of locusts that caused an exodus in other parts of the countryside.

"The success depends on how well we train the farmers and how well we organize and train the community management committees we set up," says Moussa Dominique Bangre, deputy country representative for Burkina Faso.

And, as good things tend to do, the benefits experienced in Lélègsé are steadily creeping beyond its borders. Between 2005 and 2006, CRS and Lélègsé farmers helped prepare another irrigated perimeter in the village of Silmidougou, which had 550 beneficiaries, almost equally split between the men and women. Using farmers from Lélègsé was especially helpful in training those in Silmidougou on vegetable gardening, irrigation and group dynamics.

A third project was started in September of 2007 in the village of Tougouri and will benefit 109 people. In the meantime, CRS Burkina Faso staff and our local partners are currently studying and identifying other potential sites for future programs. As in Lélègsé, the intent is to turn these projects over to the village.

Our Work in Burkina Faso

CRS first began working in Burkina Faso in 1960 when the country gained its independence. From our beginnings in the country providing food aid to needy populations, CRS has expanded our programming to include long-term, sustainable interventions in education, agriculture, health and HIV and AIDS, microfinance, and, most recently, peace and justice. CRS Burkina Faso has an office in the capital of Ouagadougou.

Darcy Higgins was an intern at CRS headquarters in Baltimore.