The country’s “white gold” has plunged many farmers into debt.
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If globalization is not always
a choice, it should at least be accepted by those it involves. Today, the dose imposed
on Africa is undoubtedly too strong. If globalization does not translate into equality
for all, it should even less be the domination of the strongest over the weakest.
Gertrude
Mongella, former member of the Tanzanian parliament and secretary general of the
1995 Beijing Women’s Conference
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Key indicators
Population
(millions, 1998): 11.3
GNP ($ billions): 2.6
GNP per capita
($): 240
Population below
income poverty line of $1 a day (%): 61.2
Source: UNDP Human
Development Report 2000.
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A farmers’ group in Burkina Faso
gains clout in its battle against the liberalization of agriculture, and turns to
the global movement for support
 Ousséini Ouédraogo, forty-something, looks like
a lumberjack. He has the moral strength of one, too. Ouédraogo coordinates
the programmes of the National Federation of Farmers’ Organizations (FENOP), a group that was
set up in 1996 and boasts 197 unions, 500 grassroots associations and some 400,000
members in every corner of Burkina Faso.
Ouédraogo, an agronomist who descends from Princess Yennenga—the ancestor
of the Mossé, Burkina Faso’s main ethnic group—is fighting for the farmers
in his country, where nearly 80 per cent of the population lives off the land. Almost
non-existent farm mechanization, illiteracy and low yields mean they are barely able
to eke out an existence. And yet, the country owes them everything. Cotton, Burkina
Faso’s primary source of foreign currency, accounted for two-thirds of export earnings
in 1998, or over 1.2 billion French francs ($171.4 million). Breeding accounted for
15 per cent of exports ($38.5 million) the same year.
“For us, farmers are full-fledged citizens,” says Ouédraogo. “They are entitled
to respect. We are working to improve their status and to defend their interests.
We’re always there wherever and whenever one of our members needs us.” The FENOP fought its first
battle against an “internal enemy.” In 1997, the organization clashed with the Textile
Fibre Company (SOFITEX),
which rules the cotton industry and has a monopoly on input and sales. Cotton was
in crisis. A black veil covered the “white gold.” Cotton fields were overrun by caterpillars,
and the pesticides supplied by a SOFITEX subsidiary were ineffective. Some farmers left the country,
others committed suicide. Growers who went into debt up to their necks at the start
of each agricultural season felt as if they had a knife to their throats.
Appealing to popular opinion, Ouédraogo and his organization asked a private
newspaper, Le Pays, to see for itself. SOFITEX counter-attacked by staging a propaganda tour of a cotton-growing
region for other newspapers. That is when the FENOP received unexpected support from L’Indépendant, directed
by the famous investigative journalist Norbert Zongo, who was assassinated on December
13, 1998. Protests swelled and the government had to calm things down: it wiped out
all the debts that farmers had contracted to purchase the pesticides. This was the
first time in any farmer’s living memory that the State backed down in the face of
angry protests.
The FENOP
is proud of that victory, but it had to keep on fighting, this time on the broader
front of farm industry liberalization. In the 1980s, structural adjustment policies
had dealt severe blows to farm aid such as subsidized fertilizers and training. Moreover,
lower import duties helped to increase competition between national and foreign products
on the domestic market. Intergovernmental accords signed in January 2000 in the framework
of West Africa’s regional integration policy only furthered the trend towards lower
customs barriers. And, as usual, nobody asked small farmers what they thought.
In this context, the FENOP started two battles, one against bananas from Côte d’Ivoire,
the other against rice from Asia, both symbols of trade liberalization. But the struggle
against bananas from Côte d'Ivoire seems futile. Even though they do not taste
as good as Burkina Faso’s smaller fruit, they look better and cost less. Grown on
large, modern plantations, they also benefit from better agricultural conditions
and a more clement climate.
The battle against Asian rice, which is gradually replacing local grains, seems off
to a better start but depends on untangling a web of corruption. “We have conducted
an investigation,” says Ouédraogo, “to show that a ton of that rice costs
25 per cent less on the market at Ouagadougou than it would if the importers paid
all the duties.” He adds that Burkina Faso’s rice “is of better quality because it
comes from recent harvests, while the imported rice is sometimes seven to 10 years
old. And there is not a shadow of a doubt that chemical preservatives had to be added
to keep it from spoiling. But many consumers are unaware of all that.”
Winning market shares without
selling out
According to its leaders, the FENOP is fighting so that
producers are no longer left out of the global economy and can win positions on future
markets. The group goes out into the field to inform and train farmers, while producing
films for national television about promising crops, such as oil seeds, shea and
sesame. For example, few farmers know that sesame brought in some $4.2 million two
years ago. That tidy sum was harvested because of the quality of Burkina Faso’s crop,
grown without fertilizers (because farmers cannot afford them) at a time when organic
products are becoming increasingly popular in Europe and Asia.
So opening up borders sometimes has positive effects. But Burkina Faso’s farmers
must be careful not to sell their souls to the devil. “That is also what we defend.
A kind of citizenship agriculture,” says Ouédraogo. “Like José Bové
in France. In September 1999, we even adopted a motion of support for the imprisoned
French farmer.” Faced with a government that is seeking to divide and denigrate the
farmers’ movement, the FENOP knows it needs allies. At the beginning of July 2000, the group helped
to set up a regional organization of West African farmers’ movements and maintains
contacts with Via Campesina, a worldwide movement to support farmers’ cultures and
struggles. The Sahel and McDonald’s may not be at war yet, but farmers’ organizations
are gearing up for the fray.
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