The Executive Director of the National Office of Major Projects, Bruno Compaoré, received 207 tonnes of local rice from the Hauts-Bassins rice mills on January 25, 2024. The handover ceremony followed by the visit to the stock store took place at within the regional agricultural directorate.
There is no development without food self-sufficiency, as we usually say. It is in this dynamic that the President of Faso, Captain Ibrahim Traoré took the initiative to sow a certain number of hectares by supporting producers of rice, corn, etc. In fact, it consists of subsidizing fertilizer and seeds for the benefit of producers so that they produce a lot. And in return, they must hand over bags of food as compensation for the value of the subsidized products. The goal of this presidential initiative is to increase the productivity of food crops in order to achieve food self-sufficiency in the country. After production, the share which must return to the State must be transformed by units before being transported to the beneficiary’s storage stores. In the Hauts-Bassins region, this is the second award ceremony of its kind after that of December 27, 2023.
According to Dr Bruno Compaoré, Executive Director of the National Office of Major Projects of Burkina, “we are present this morning to materialize the vision of the President of Faso through this agricultural initiative. Even if this initiative did not exist, it had to be created, because it is on the right path to achieving food self-sufficiency in our country.”
The special advisor to the Presidency of Faso in charge of agricultural affairs and food self-sufficiency, Abdourasmané Kadougoudiou Konaté, explained the initiative further. For him, “we are receiving the second tranche of rice which should be delivered instead of subsidized fertilizers. This tranche represents 33% after the first which represented 27%. This means that there is still the third tranche to come in the coming days which corresponds exactly to 40%.” “We are going to do the same thing for corn in order to store them and then distribute them according to the needs of the populations,” said Abdourasmané Konaté.
For Éric Adanabou, Regional Director in charge of agriculture in Hauts-Bassins, “this vision of the Head of State is in line with the current context of our country where certain sons and daughters need food to feed themselves. For this, we will work to ensure that the project succeeds.”
Local rice processors fully appreciate the initiative. This is the case of Seydou Konaté. “We really appreciate the initiative and we want it to be sustainable. However, we need technical and financial support from the State to face the difficulties we are experiencing,” he stressed.
Same story from Boukary Traoré, General Director of the Faso horse rice processing and marketing unit.
Ben Alassane DAO
