ROPPA Honorary president questions Heads of State:

Is the highest level of sovereignty military or food sovereignty?

Mamadou Cissoko is the honorary president of the West African network of farmers’ organisations and agricultural producers (ROPPA). He was in Ouagadougou on May 11 for the preparation of a West African forum, in which farmers and decision-makers will confront each other about the future of traditional agriculture, in the light of the uncertainty that surrounds WTO agreements and Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). In this interview he sets out the vision of the African Farmers.

You are the honorary president of ROPPA. What is the purpose of your visit here in Burkina Faso?

I am in Burkina Faso to see the National Confederation of Farmers (Confédération Paysanne du Faso – CPF), which is affiliated to ROPPA. Together we have had a meeting with the Government bodies in charge of agriculture and environment and the WAEMOU (West African Economic and Monetary Union) in order to discuss the common agricultural policy.

The WAEMOU adopted its policy in 2001 and in January 2005 the ECOWAS adopted its own in Accra. Therefore the region now has two agricultural policies running, which are about to be harmonised in order to ensure consistency.

We, the producers, appreciate the fact that the WAEMOU and the ECOWAS have given us an important part in the preparation and approval of these policy documents.

However, we realise that these two policies will be implemented under difficult circumstances, which now bear the mark of the current EPA and WTO negotiations. These policies were endorsed in adverse conditions, under a bad omen one could say. The general environment was not propitious, because the two scenarios called for increased openness and competition.

As a matter of principle an agricultural policy should bring together all the necessary and important components conducive to the promotion of agriculture, for example the organisation and protection of a regional market.

The ECOWAS policy was endorsed in January 2005. In July nothing was forthcoming. The farmers’ unions began to worry. Therefore we contacted the president in office of ECOWAS, the president of Niger, when a speedier introduction of the CET (Common External Tariff) was being discussed and the implementation of the road map for signing the EPA was going to go forward without delay.

Of the mobilisation of governments to earmark 10% of their budgets for agriculture there is no sign. Or at the most, there is only the slightest hint of a move. This does not really help us.

We therefore asked the president to authorise the convening of a forum on food sovereignty. It would provide an opportunity for African farmers to state their views on the present stance of our agriculture in the framework of globalisation and economic partnership agreements. Discussion of other vast issues will also be welcomed, but we see agriculture as the lever that will trigger general development. It is also the sector that we best manage at the moment and we must not sell it out. There is the cotton of Burkina, coffee and cocoa of the Ivory Coast and Nigeria is the third world producer of ground nuts, followed by Senegal. We have some strong cards. Why not work together in building on the strength of these assets? It is the foundation of our integration.

Yes, because it is in agriculture that we are doing rather well and that we could do even better, so he has given us the go-ahead. We have asked him to invite the other Heads of State, the ministers of agriculture and of trade, as well as our development partners. We are often told that our cities are poverty-stricken, but nobody takes account of the number of farmers who leave their fields and head for the city to try and eke out a meagre living. Every day we can see press reports on hold-ups along our roads, but nobody relates this to the flooding of our markets with cheap foreign products in the name of unbridled liberalisation with which our farmers cannot compete.

In this city, where it is said that the general population is poor, are there really any jobs? There are not enough companies or industries. Street vendors - can they really make enough money to by a kilo of imported rice at 250 CFA? I doubt it. We have to set the record straight. It is the public officials and salaried employees of the state who make the wheels of the city economy turn. How many others in the city can make a decent living?

The city does not create employment but continues to attract farmers, especially the young, who leave the countryside behind. We must find a way out of this situation, because if it persists we are bound for a head-on crash. Let us calculate the cost to society of this state of affairs. Fifteen years ago, who could have imagined being trapped by muggers along the roads of Burkina? We have to look into the roots of this evil.

At present everybody is fighting for the abolition of subsidies. If they are stopped, the price of imported rice will go up, the cost of a loaf of bread will be 300 CFA. Current price levels are based on the fact that wheat is subsidised.

Could the fight against cotton subsidies backlash on you?

To protect our cotton trade we are fighting subsidies. But in doing so, we fight all subsidies. We must pause to think. Our welfare is by no means secured, because the current prices of foodstuffs are artificial. Even if we accept to make these cheap (imported*) products available to the population at large, knowing that it will kill domestic agriculture, what will happen to our sovereignty? Which is the more important, military sovereignty or food sovereignty? When a country’s population can ensure 80 to 90% of its food requirements, it can stand up for itself and negotiate with others. This is no longer the case in our sub-region. We are increasingly dependent on external supply. Let us imagine what would have occurred if the people of Burkina had relied on imported chicken only. How would it have coped with the outbreak of avian flu? How long would it have taken to develop a domestic poultry trade?

We wish to discuss all these issues with our governments and with the press, which does not always make an in depth analysis of facts. Our future is under threat.

Therefore Burkina should continue to grow cotton, of very good quality, but it must not forget to also grow rice, sorghum and maize, which are basic staples in our food culture.

Who is responsible for the fact that farmers remain attached to cotton? It was the governments who negotiated cotton programmes and growing areas. Track roads were laid, literacy programmes started and savings banks set up. All the logistics were put in place in agreement with donors to make farmers grow cotton. Did that also happen for growers of maize and sorghum?

Did you know that within the ECOWAS the consumption of white rice in 2004 was 9 million tonnes? We produced only 4.5 million ourselves. There was never a year in which all countries had a surplus at the same time. It would therefore be possible to set up a market and regulate it. That would be possible for millet and sorghum as well. From Cotonou to Abuja and up to Bamako people buy millet to make tô (a local cereal paste*). There are areas with a surplus and others with a deficit. But as soon as we propose transporting a few tonnes of cereals from one point in the area to another a great number of problems are created – one would think we were planning trafficking in arms. We wish to question the Heads of Government on all these aspects.

Africans do not initiate many, they are being asked to do so. Your newspaper could try an investigate how many of all those held in Burkina really originate from a local initiative with funds and priorities determined by the citizens of Burkina themselves.

The first difference with regard to this forum is that it is the farmers who have turned to the ECOWAS president with queries on their living conditions and their future. The regional agricultural policies are only taking some tiny and hesitant first steps, although the situation is urgent.

Secondly, it is the farmers who wish to speak to their elected representatives, because we as voters are in a majority and we have given them our confidence. We want to speak to them about our concerns and theirs.

Thirdly, we have asked for the attendance of the ministers of agriculture and trade to discuss our situation. The minister of agriculture is always singled out as our reference, but it is not always that ministry which negotiates.

Within ROPPA we have pondered this issue. The problem is not technical and not even financial.

Everybody tells us that agriculture is a priority and that it accounts for 45% of our GDP. We wish to see this reflected in government spending policies, in terms of investment at the rural community level, so that the lives of farmers may be enhanced.

We do not actually have proposals to make. We will bring up the issues and the facts. It is up to them to tell us what should be done. We will tell them that we are coming to depend on external supplies for food. Is this a good thing for us? If they tell us that it is all right, we shall put it on record. If they say no, we shall see what must be done about it. If they all say that in 3O years time there will be no villages left and that in the capital, Ouagadougou, you can handle 8 million people and in Bobo Dioulasso, (the second largest city*), 4 million, we will accept that too. But our job is to call their attention to the situation and point out to them that if things continue at the present pace, this is how it could degenerate.

The trend could be stopped, if the rural communities could offer conditions that make the young generation stay and live well. Data on Burkina indicate that 80% of the population lives in rural areas. These numbers are no longer valid, because of the rural exodus. The cities are not just Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso. Have a look at the medium size towns that mesmerise youngsters and draw them in from the countryside. If no work is available in the rural areas, our villages will disappear. Our responsibility is to unveil for our leaders facts that are now barred from their view. They who have pledged to work for the wellbeing of their fellow countrymen will then have to honour their commitment.

The substance of a common external tariff is based on clear political objectives. Tariffs are calculated in accordance. Our task is to set the debate, we bring forth our matters of concern. It is then up to the decision-makers and technical experts to adjust them to our aspirations. If this is not the case, I do not understand how a common external tariff is worked out. The question raised by ROPPA is whether it has been decided that we should be dependent on the supply of low price imports today, whilst fighting at the WTO for the elimination of subsidies. Would we like to see our villages vanish and be replaced by large cities in 30 years’ time? Once these questions have been put, it will be possible to establish a CET with due consideration of facts.

The price of cotton has fallen in Burkina from 175 to 165 CFA. Do you have a comment to this?

I am not a cotton producer myself. But I express solidarity with all the cotton growers who are now fighting for their survival. It is not possible to make people stay in their rural homes if their income continues to shrink. Do the employees of public or private companies undergo the same reductions of pay levels? Even if their pay does not increase, at least it is not being curtailed. One cannot not create employment and stimulate it, if there is a constant trop in earnings. Look at the young in front of their TV screens. They say that even if it means that they all risk to die, they will emigrate to Europe. Imagine a region where there is no young generation. That must make the Heads of State think seriously. If they can conceive of ruling a nation without any young, they must say so. We, the farmers, lay the problem before their feet. It is up to them to decide.

Interview by Abdolaye TAO

“LE PAYS” (Daily paper, Burkina Faso*) *Translator’s note