BURKINA FASO Food Security Update February 2008 This report focuses on market conditions in the western part of the country. It is the product of a joint CILSS/SONAGESS/FEWS NET market and cross‐border trade assessment mission in the Boucle du Mouhoun and Hauts Bassins regions. The methodology used by the mission combines interviews of institutional stakeholders and private market participants and on‐site visits to area markets. • The food security situation in the western part of the country is Figure 1. Current estimated food security satisfactory (Figure 1). Recent measures taken by the conditions (January through March of 2008) government (social marketing programs and restrictions on exports) are helping to drive down prices in many areas. There are also large on‐farm and trader inventories in these regions, despite reported climatic anomalies in certain locations during the past growing season. • Given the current level of domestic supply and demand, there is very little likelihood of a critical food security situation like that of 2005. Traders are asking the government to lift current bans on grain exports to allow them to sell their grain supplies on major markets within the sub region, such as that of Niger, alleging that a continuation of current government measures could force both farmers and traders to build up overly large inventories, penalizing farmers in the event of a good 2008/09 growing Source: FEWS NET season and resulting in the selling off of grain crops at rock‐bottom prices due to a slump in demand. • In the livestock sector, the problem of limited access to feed supplements following this year’s shortfall in cotton production needs to be dealt with immediately to ensure good feeding conditions for livestock during the upcoming lean period for the country’s animal population (from March to April). Seasonal calendar and timeline of major events Source: FEWS NET FEWS NET Burkina Faso FEWS NET Washington Ouagadougou 1717 H St NW FEWS NET is a USAID-funded activity. The authors’ views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Agency for Tel: (226) 50 37 47 06 Washington DC 20006 International Development or the United States Government. [email protected] [email protected] www.fews.net BURKINA FASO Food Security Outlook February 2008 Figure 2. Livelihood zones in Burkina Faso ZONE MAIN TYPES OF PRODUCTION 8Gorom-Gorom MALI Djibo Djibo Zone1 Tubers/Corn ! Dori ! Titao 7 Dori NIGER Zone 2 Corn, Rice, Fruit, Cotton Ouahigouya! Kongoussi Sebba Tougan Kaya Gourcy Boulsa Tougan !Kaya Zone 3 Cotton, Corn ! Bogande Nouna Yako 6 Bousse Gayeri Toma 5 ! Zone 4 Sorghum, Millet, Cotton Dedougou Ziniare ! 4 Ouagadougou !([ Koudougou Ouagadougou ! Zorgho Solenzo Dedougou Reo Koudougou Koupela ! Zone 5 Grain, Groundnuts, Market Gardening Fada-N'Gourma Diapaga Kombissiri 3 Tenkodogo ! Boromo Sapouy Manga Tenkodogo Pama Zone 6 Sorghum, Millet, Sedentary livestock, Cotton Orodara Houndé Ouargaye 9 Bobo-Dioulasso Leo Po ! Leo Po ! ! Orodara Bobo-DioulassoDiebougouDano ! ! Diebougou Zone 7 Livestock, Millet Banfora ! Sindou 2 1 BENIN Zone 8 Transhumant Pastoralism, Pearl Millet Banfora Gaoua! GHANA TOGO Groundnuts, millet, sorghum, cross-border trade, Batié Zone 9 050100 tourism, hunting COTE D'IVOIRE Kilometers Source: FEWS NET Current food security The food security situation is good in areas of the western part of the country that traditionally produce surplus crops. There are large on‐farm inventories and ample grain availability in area markets in the wake of good rainfall conditions in most of these areas. In general, households are able to ensure their members three regular meals a day without any major problems, except in the case of flood victims, who are getting only one or two meals a day. There is generally good food availability from on‐farm inventories and on reference markets in Dédougou, Solenzo, Djibasso, Niéneta (Bobo Dioulasso), Houndé, and N’Dorola. Moreover, the situation is improving with ongoing harvests of off‐season crops in certain locations. Supply Market supplies in major crop‐producing areas in the western part of the country are more than adequate. The main grain crops in the Boucle du Mouhoun region – known as the nation’s grain basket – are millet, white sorghum, maize, cowpeas, and fonio, in that order. Trader inventories in the Hauts Bassins region consist mostly of white maize, followed by millet, white sorghum, and cowpeas. Despite localized flooding and the shorter than usual rainy season in certain parts of these regions, on the whole, production levels should be sufficient to meet the grain needs of local residents up until September 2008, when the new harvest should begin to replenish supplies. Private trader inventories in the Hauts Bassins region are larger than last year due, in part, to their inability to export their grain crops. Certain traders are beginning to worry about selling their grain after having built up large inventories (particularly of maize) immediately following the 2007/08 harvest, financed by bank loans. These traders are prevented from honoring their commitments to deliver grain supplies to their counterparts elsewhere in the subregion (mainly in Niger) by an unofficial government ban on grain exports. One of the largest grain traders in Bobo‐Dioulasso, for example, is reportedly holding an inventory of over 20,000 MT of grain at his various warehouses in the western and central parts of the country, compared with a figure of 8,000 MT at the same time last year. The same trader has another 1,000 MT of sorghum and 500 MT of maize in Mali. He has received several invitations to bid for ongoing procurements by the National Grain Board in Niger, but is unable to respond. If these traders are unable to sell their inventories at what they consider to be lucrative prices, they will not buy any fresh crops from the next harvest, forcing farmers to sell off their produce at low prices which, in the short term, will only discourage them from increasing their output. Farmers in most parts of these regions have cut into their on‐farm reserves. In fact, delays in payment to cotton growers caused farmers in the Hauts Bassins and Boucle du Mouhoun regions to unload large amounts of grain on area markets in search of needed cash with which to cover miscellaneous expenses (tuition for their children, celebrations of holidays and important events, etc.) According to different stakeholders (traders, carriers, and government officials), there is normally a large supply of white maize in the Cascades region of the country, close to the border with Ivory Coast. In fact, most of the yellow maize supply in this region comes from towns and villages just across the border in Ivory Coast. There are also regular domestic trade Famine Early Warning Systems Network 2 BURKINA FASO Food Security Outlook February 2008 flows. There are regular flows of sorghum, millet and white maize from these major crop‐producing regions to the northern, central and Sahelian regions of the country and, in the other direction, there are inflows of cowpeas and livestock from these latter regions. Demand for grain on collection markets has slackened compared with the same time last year due, in part, to the fact that wholesalers are no longer resorting to retail wholesalers and middlemen in the face of their own problems selling existing inventories outside the country, after the government has made it difficult to obtain export certificates and plant‐ health certificates for their crops. There are also large supplies of livestock on markets in the western part of the country. These markets sell mostly local Mossi or Sahelian breeds of goats and sheep (small animals) and different breeds of cattle, horses, and asses, which are sought after as draft animals. Animal feeding conditions in these regions are good at this time of year. However, there are reportedly shortages of animal feed and supply bottlenecks, particularly in the case of agro‐industrial byproducts. This is due partly to this year’s poor cotton harvest in Burkina Faso and partly to the heavy pressure on animal feed in the face of the large demand from traders in Mali, where the cotton harvest was a complete failure, and which is also generally the source of supply for Mauritania, thereby doubling the pressure on the Burkina market. Prices Domestic grain prices are falling after Table 1. Unit grain prices (in CFAF/kg) on selected markets in western Burkina the hike in prices in November 2007 Faso for February of 2008, compared with 2007 (due largely to speculation prompted Market Sorghum Millet White Cowpeas by fears of below normal harvests). maize Supply is currently outstripping 2008 2007 2008 2007 2008 2007 2008 2007 demand. The current downturn in Dédougou 100 83 120 85 120 82 215 183 prices is attributable to: (1) the Djibasso 120 79 110 76 - - - - Bobo- government’s social marketing 95 77 110 110 100 80 217 program for high‐risk households in Dioulasso food‐deficit areas, which has been Source: Joint CILSS/SONAGESS/FEWS NET mission operating since November (under which 5,000 MT of grain were sold at 9,000 CFAF per 100 kg sack, with a second block of 5,000 MT currently up for sale); and (2) the capping of prices by traders in food‐deficit provinces between December 2007 and February 2008. Compared to this time last year, prices for principal cereals on the west of the country are higher (see Table 1). The relatively low prices in 2007 were due to good agricultural production in this area in the previous season. However, according to market participants, given the current levels of supply and demand, there is very little likelihood of this year’s prices matching 2005 price levels, given the combination of current large on‐farm and trader inventories and government restrictions on grain exports.