Where have all the local rice bags gone? 

I am still in Europe. I take the opportunity of conveying to you an item from the newspaper Bendré. For some of you this will be a chance to discover the paper. As the journalist makes reference to some of my newsletters, I have added a few links. You will see that today’s situation, and in particular the discouragement of rice growers, was already foreseeable back in 2002. Don’t forget to take a look at “L’Eléphant d’Afrique”!

One may look into one, two, three … or even four shops in Ouagadougou without finding any rice from the Sourou valley, the Banzon plains or Bama. Among the thousands of shops in Ouagadougou,  capital city and vast trading centre of Burkina, there are only two or three public outlets for local rice.  The price is 15 000 CFA francs per 50 kg bag. The difficulty in finding it is one major hurdle to more widespread consumption of local rice.

Imported rice is readily available to the average citizen, but locally grown varieties are as scarce as emerald. One may be inclined to think that the Homeland of Honest People (“Burkina Faso”) is a very poor disciple of the World Food Programme (WFP). It apparently has nothing to show in terms of rice production, rice being however one of the most widely consumed crops on the planet. Neither the climate, nor the soil is an impediment to growing rice in the Homeland of Honest  People.

Another hitch in the promotion of local rice is consumer attitude. As former colonised subjects, consumers tend to prefer imported rice. There is  clearly a political will towards liberalising the economy,  a fact that is not necessarily welcomed by all. Tradesmen  or unofficial dealers have a double advantage in rice imports. This is bound not to please the MP Nabaho Kanidoa – who spoke out on this issue in Parliament in his address on the state of the nation  – but it is nevertheless an actual fact. For years there was an annual surplus of domestic rice , but farmers were unable to sell it. The market was submerged by imported rice.  One common practice among traders, which also accounts for the scarcity of local rice, is to go out and buy directly at the paddies and then mix  the home grown rice with imported varieties, so as to boost  profit margins.  Faced with this shortage the government should have introduced price controls, import duties and import quotas. If not, what  protection is there for the home market?  Rice imports in this country are in the hands of a few traders, investment companies, hedge funds and the like, aided and abetted in their monopolistic urge by shady policies.

Disgusted by the torments of Burkina’s rice growers, Father Maurice Oudet, anti-global champion and Director of the Editorial Office of Publications in Official Local Languages, SEDELAN (Service d’Edition en Langues Nationales) wrote on pp 16-17 in his communication:

“The burden of international trade on African peasant farmers”

To illustrate the disastrous results of  liberal policies in agriculture, I suggest you make a little tour around the rice fields of Bama (25 km from Bobo Dioulasso in the south west of the country). You will find dispirited rice growers. Some have turned their paddy into a maize field or a market garden. If you point out that the rice paddy is not well tended, you will be told that the farmers first take care of their maize and then their rice field. Because when the harvest is there, the price offered for their rice crop does not do them much good! It barely covers their production costs. You might ask yourself. “How could it come to this?” Just follow me. We will go to the market place in Bobo Dioulasso. Look at the rice bags. Come closer! What do you see? “Eléphant d’Afrique”. What is there of Africa in this elephant?! It has come from Thailand, to importune Africa and trample it underfoot … and African rice farmers too!

At the present juncture of rising costs of living and a resurgence of the slogan “Let us consume Burkinabè” – the old battle horse of the 4th of August revolutionaries – it would be better for political leaders to encourage local production by making efficient decisions.

For a long time food security was an issue in the countries of the South. This concept implies securing a grain production sufficient to meet the needs of the planet. It had the advantage of alerting governments to imminent or future food crises. To this end estimates, statistics, market research are continuously produced and updated, in order to provide accurate forecasts for the ongoing or forthcoming planting season.  With the EU and US subsidies, the recent protection of rice stocks by producer countries, the Southern nations which have become too hooked on imported rice should have  taken action to reduce their vulnerability in the years ahead.  The idea of food sovereignty on the other hand, introduced by the Via Campesina movement at the World Food Summit in 1996 , gives in a nutshell a better definition of what the fight of African rice farmers is all about: “Food sovereignty is the right of a population, a country or group of countries to determine their farm and food policy, without dumping products  on third countries.”  It gives priority to local agricultural production, customs duties on cheap imports and management of domestic supply as well as involvement of farmers in agricultural decision-making.

No nation has been developed without first securing control over its means of production. It is by

well managed and sufficient local production that added value can be generated. It can  then be invested in the development of other sectors of the economy and hence of the country as a whole.  What a pity that our food security now is in the hands of other nations and that the official brain waves do not run along the lines of food sovereignty.

From Bendré