Carter Center Global Health Efforts - Burkina Faso

Activities By Country

Fighting Disease: Burkina Faso

Working hand in hand with the Burkina Faso Ministry of Agriculture, The Carter Center began helping Burkinabe farmers improve agricultural development in 1997. The program in Burkina Faso was part of a larger partnership, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Norman Borlaug until his death in 2009, between the Carter Center's Agriculture Program and the Sasakawa Africa Association. Known as SG 2000, the program helped more than 8 million small-scale sub-Saharan African farmers learn new farming techniques to double or triple grain production.

Burkina Faso is a dry area with erratic rainfall, where the staple food crops are millet, sorghum, and maize. In the past, soil degradation in Burkina Faso led to the abandonment of land. Now, because of population pressure, the recovery of abandoned farming land has become a priority. However, Burkina's climate and lack of rainfall make cultivation of a good harvest difficult. In these rural areas, farming is not only an employment; it also is necessary for survival, as most of a farmer's harvest is food for his or her family. Poor crop yields – first and foremost – mean less to eat.

To address the needs of Burkina Faso's farmers, The Carter Center and the Burkina Faso Ministry of Agriculture instituted an agricultural development program. The system gave farmers credit for fertilizers and seeds to grow production test plots. These test plots would allow farmers to experiment with a new type of crop, fertilizer, or planting methods to better cultivate and diversify their farms. Following successful harvests, farmers would teach their neighbors about these new technologies, creating a ripple effect to stimulate food self-sufficiency in the nation.

One success of this program is the story of Boala, a village close to the Burkina Faso-Ghana border. At the center of a cotton-growing area, Boala's main food crops were millet, sorghum, and rice, with only a little maize planted in scattered, weed-infested fields.

The program began by offering two varieties of maize – quality protein maize, or obantanpa, and Streak Resistant 21, a type of maize useful during dry seasons in Burkina – to 50 farmers in the area. With guidance from the Ministry of Agriculture's extension staff, the farmers of Boala protected their fields before cultivating them by building dykes to reduce soil erosion. They also built phosphate-rock-enriched compost pits to provide another source of fertile soil. Then the recommended seeds and fertilizer were applied to the fields. Farmers from neighboring villages were organized to coordinate their planting together on "field days." Participants of the program responded enthusiastically to the methods and new crops.

As a result of the popularity of the introduced methods and crops, the farming landscape changed rapidly. Boala was a focal point for the sale of obantanpa and SR 21 maize variety seed. The number of participating farmers also increased from the beginning group of 50 in 1996 to more than 1,000 in 1998. The program itself also spread from Boala to 281 villages.

The program's incorporation of adapted grain varieties developed by the Institute for the Environment and Agricultural Research made year-round cultivation of maize possible on Burkinabe farms. Additionally, the promotion of small-scale irrigation, also intended to combat drought, has bolstered intensive maize farming. As a result of these efforts, maize has been increasingly replacing sorghum and millet in the Burkinabe diet.

Thus, although adopting new technologies to improve crop yields is helping to improve agricultural development in Burkina Faso, it is only half the battle. Farmers then must find ways to sell their surplus crops. For this reason, the program helped identify local markets for these surpluses because transporting them can be costly and inefficient. Projects also focused on post-harvest technologies, including methods for processing and storing. Neighboring countries in the program that share crop seasons are encouraged to foster lasting cooperative efforts.

The Carter Center ended its agricultural activities in Burkina Faso in 2005.