“Today we are struggling to live”. Like many cotton producers in Burkina Faso, Laurent Koadima is hit hard by the jihadist violence that undermines the country and push farmers to abandon their fields.
In this country which has among the main producers of the continent, cotton exploitation has dropped more than a quarter in a year. About 4 of the 23 million inhabitants live directly or indirectly in this sector.
“Insecurity strongly affected cotton production in the region,” Issa Lommpo, 38 -year -old producer in the east of the country, told AFP. Its fields are its only source of income, to take charge of its seven children.
“In four years, more than 32,000 cotton farms have been lost in the region because of insecurity,” he continues.
This area has been regularly targeted by attacks by jihadist groups since 2018. At the end of June. At the end of June, seven police officers and a soldier were killed during a series of attacks around Fada N’Gourma, regional chief town where the families of producers say they take refuge.
In this city is one of the three cotton companies in Burkina, the Cotonnière du Gourma (SOCOMA) company: recently, it has dismissed all of its hundreds of employees.
In a note addressed to its staff dated July 7, SOCOMA announced “the dismissal for economic reasons of all permanent and seasonal staff”, due to the lack of activity for three years now.
If the company reached an average annual annual production of 80,000 tonnes in the mid -2000s, this figure fell to 3,000 tonnes in 2024.
At the national level, cotton production dropped by 26% in one year, from 386,794 tonnes in 2023 to 286,623 tonnes in 2024, according to official figures.
– “very difficult” –
“Before, we were envied because the cotton was working well and the productions were good,” said Laurent Koadima, a 48 -year -old producer.
“But for the past two or three years, it is very difficult”, the “security situation has made that we have lost many cultivable land,” he confirms.
And “today, it is difficult to live”, he says: “I find it difficult to ensure the needs of my family because last year I have not collected, currently I do small work and a little trade”, but “two of my children had to abandon the school”.
“Those who have lost their fields because of insecurity have converted into other activities such as breeding, or trade,” notes Issa Lommpo.
At the end of June, the National Union of Burkina Cotton Producers (UNPCB) also pointed out the difficulties of “evacuating or harvesting” cotton “due to insecurity”, during a general meeting.
The Cotton Interprofessional Association of Burkina (AICB) also mentioned in 2023 “difficulties in delivery of orders for agricultural inputs” and “the increase in the cost of maritime freight”, which also weaken the sector, in this landlocked country.
“The sector takes blows year after year,” deplores Moussa Barro, another producer.
This year, the military regime has allocated subsidies to producers this year for the acquisition of agricultural inputs, up to 5 billion CFA francs (7.6 million euros).
Burkina has been undermined for almost 10 years by the murderous attacks of groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
The junta of Captain Ibrahim Traoré, in power since a putsch in September 2022, ensures the reconquest of the territory a “priority”, but the country remains taken in a spiral of violence.
According to the NGO ACLED, which lists the victims of conflicts worldwide, they have made more than 26,000 dead, civilians and military, more than half in the past three years.
According to the Burkinabè trade ministry, cotton represents 4% of GDP and around 14% of the country’s export revenues.
Almost all of the Burkinabè cotton fiber is exported, mainly in Asia.
Posted on August 13 at 10:30 am, AFP