Over the past few years a lot of effort has been put into developing the culture of rice in Burkina Faso, but with mixed results! The rice paddy does not make much profit. As a result, the cooperative in Bazon lost 20% of its members (from 927 to 750). Why is it so difficult to sell rice paddy? For the answer, you will need to ask the people of thailand and other rice exporters: all the rice sold on the world market today is subsidised. Another reason is that some American NGO’s working locally sell off their surplus supplies of subsidised rice, which is normally counted as US aid to developing countries. How can an NGO sell off cheaply 1.5 billion CFA worth of rice to make money for its own functioning and pretend that it has no effect on the national market of Burkina Faso? They have even created a new word to describe this practice: translated into English it means: "to practise monetisation". I have never heard a farmer say, "I am monetising", when he sells off his crop.

Today I heard that another American NGO received a free gift, under the cover of food aid, of more than 4,000 tons of soya oil from the USA, with a market value of 1.7 billion CFA (about US $2.6 million or euros.) The NGO sold this to the highest local bidder. Given that SN Citec, which makes vegetable oil from cotton, is one of the more successful companies of Burkina Faso, one is led to ask for whom these American NGO’s are actually working: for the development of Burkina Faso (their supposed reason for existence) or for the American producers?

Questioned about this practice, some members of this NGO told us that they are not the only people to do this! It is time to find out how far spread this practice is. If food aid is sometimes a necessary evil, it seems to be able to transform itself into a food weapon!

So we would be happy to receive any further information about this practice, either here in Burkina Faso or in any other African country. Is it only American NGO’s who practise this? Or do other countries, such as those of the European Union, also get rid of their excess production in this way, putting at risk the agriculture of the South?

For how much longer will Burkina Faso allow the free entry into its territory the excess production of the North?