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Agriculture Agriculture and Cattle Breeding
Agro-forestry is the most common land usage system. When the farmers clear the land, they deliberately select and conserve trees and shrubs for their heating, building, fodder and medicinal qualities. The plots of land are traditionally farmed for three to six year periods, then left to lie fallow for ten to fifteen years. Nowadays, the fallow period may be reduced to only two years. This makes soil erosion more likely. Farmers generally work several types of plot: Most family’s clear small areas of forest to grow crops for themselves. These are called “ bush fields”. Village fields, including the individual family plot around people's homes, are permanent or semi-permanent plots, which are enriched every year with compost made up of household waste and manure. Low ground fields, which may be partially or completely flooded
are used for different purposes in the south and north of the country.
Rice is grown in the completely flooded fields and in regions with
high rainfall. In the Sudano-Sahelian zone, low ground fields are
used for growing sorghum, which is sometimes mixed with corn. Only 3.5 million hectares, or one third of the country's potential farmland is used for farming. Although an estimated 160,000 hectares could be irrigated, only 21,000 hectares actually are. Cattle graze on fallow ground during the dry season, overgrazing is a major problem leaving the soil bare and exposed to rain and wind erosion. Trees are stripped of their lower leaves and branches.
Livestock Livestock numbers (estimated) 4.4 million cattle, 12.5 million sheep and goats, and 19.9 million fowls. Livestock production contributes 28% of agricultural GNP and 12% of total GNP. Cattle breeding is mainly extensive and is carried out all over the country, it is the country's second source of income after cotton, but output is variable due to the unreliable rainfall. The overall decrease in the rainfall over the last 30 years has resulted in serious water shortages, upsetting the farming calendar and causing changes in crop farming. The low level of understanding of animal husbandry, the cost of veterinary products, which herders cannot always afford and which are not easy to get means that livestock suffer from diseases such as pneumonia and foot and mouth disease. The southern part of the country is infested with tsetse fly and this is why this area has never had many farm animals. The roads between the farming areas and the major markets are poor so transportation costs are high. The north of the country, with low and unreliable rainfall, is dominated by the Fulani nomadic pastoralists, who move around with their herds looking for grazing and water. Zebu cattle are the most important livestock and they are kept for milk for the Fulani and for sale. Male cattle are reared until mature and then sold for meat or as draught oxen. This pastoral system is based on mobility in search of grazing and water, and the constant battle to match herd numbers and family needs to the resources available.
Over most of the centre and south of the country rain fed farming of a mixture of crops is the dominant agricultural system. Individual land holdings are small, cultivation is almost entirely by hand and few inputs (fertilizer) are used. Risk reducing strategies include the growing of a range off annual cereals, and traditional vegetables. Traditionally only small numbers of sheep and a few goats are kept with a few people keeping cattle and horses. Sheep are important for many social and ritual purposes and as a form of savings as they can be sold for cash at short notice. Poultry are importable in this system. Little management is provided and birds are expected to scavenge for food and water. Chickens are kept mainly for meat and are also important in ritual and social practices. Guinea fowl are kept for egg production and eggs are regularly sold for small amounts of cash. The Future of cattle breeding. Cattle breeding is a key activity, representing 14% of exports (10.2% of which are live animals and meat, 3.7% leather and hides) New livestock systems are being developed around urban centres. The removal of export subsidies on meat by the European Union has had the effect of restoring the natural advantage of the Sahel countries as producers of cheap livestock products. Large-scale poultry production is planned as well as an increase in milk production by introducing the appropriate breeds of cattle. Cereals The Burkinabe (the name for people from Burkina Faso) eat an estimated average of 180 kg of cereals per person per year. Cereals (millet, sorghum, corn, fonio, and rice) are the staple food crop and occupy 85% of the countries cultivated land. Rice Urbanization has boosted demand for rice over the last thirty years and a number of hydro-agricultural schemes have been devoted to rice growing. 58% of rice grown in Burkina Faso is produced on irrigated land. National production barely covers 20% of total demand, however and demand is growing by 12% a year, which means that rice has to be imported. Efforts are being made to develop new (pluvial) varieties and to turn low ground into irrigated paddies. Fruit and vegetables Mangos and French beans have become two main exports. Other products include strawberries, okra, chilli peppers and cherry tomatoes. Cotton: the main cash crop Cotton alone accounts for 60% of Burkina's export revenue. It is one of the means of reducing the countries chronic balance of trade deficit. In 1997, the caution sector, which represents the primary source of income in rural areas, employed 5000 salaried workers and supported two million people, earning approximately 35% of the GPD. Burkina is one of the top five cotton produces in French speaking Africa. Cotton growing is expanding particularly fast in the east. Production increased by 34% between 1996-97. The future may not be so certain. On the 4th of July 2002, in the Times newspaper, a letter from Janine di Giovann was published which outlined the concern felt by Bukinabians that the American Congress had passed a Farm Bill boosting subsidies to American cotton producers from 35 to 72 cents a pound. Although America is the world's leading producer of cotton, the Government wants to ensure that it stays ahead of the competitors such as Uzbekistan, Australia and increasingly Africa. Other cash crops. Sugar cane Groundnuts (peanuts) Shea nuts (Karite nuts) Problems faced by agriculture. There has always been some conflict between the pastoral (keeping animals) and mixed farming (animals and crops) systems. The Fulani (nomadic group who keep animals) always graze their herds on crop residues, stubble and fallow during the dry season and have access to water from shallow wells. In return the mixed farmers get the manure on their fields, but there was also conflict as Fulani stock trespassed on crops during the growing season and caused damage. It seems likely that conflicts have increased in recent years.
The growing population and new markets created in the towns have
caused an increase in land being farmed and so there is less grazing
land. In some areas animals are used to help farm the land and
this has also created a need for fodder or grazing for these draught
animals. Farmers have increased the number of animals they own
as an insurance against drought, as a form of investment for their
money from selling cash crops, and because some bought animals
cheaply during the droughts of the 1970s and 1980s. Now that the
pastoralists have been settling and starting to cultivate, the
different farming practices, which complemented each other, have
now been replaced with competition for land to cultivate. |
Fulani
and other pastoralists have been settling and starting to cultivate
over long periods in Burkina Faso, including the relative
favoured areas of the south and centre which they formally visited
as dry season refuges. Pastoralists settle either as a result
of direct impoverishment, or from the desire to establish, through
cultivation, use-rights to land before others do. In such cases
they are 'strangers' with no historical land rights, and are
subject
to the authority of the nominal landowner, of the village headman
and local chief.