Thailand, China, India ... 
Sell off their excess rice on the world market. 
This rice enters Burkina Faso with no special import duty and forces down local prices.

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It is August 2002 in the rice fields of Bama.

In fact the farmers are not very motivated. They tell us that rice does not sell well. They make little or no profit.

Men, women, adults and children, all work in the rice fields. But the women form the majority.

You don’t need to go back far up the rice network to discover the origins of its difficulties: last year Burkina Faso imported 20 billion FCFA worth of rice. This rice is sold cheaply on the international market, at prices lower than its production costs. In Thailand, for example the state protects its domestic market so as to offer its producers a profitable price. The exported rice is also subsidized. As it enters Burkina Faso free from a special import duty, it is sold even cheaper on markets here than in Thailand! So the Burkinabé rice producers are unable to sell their rice at a price that covers their production costs.  

It seems to us that this little journey of 25km from Bama to Bobo-Dioulasso tells us more about the causes of rural poverty than any number of workshops looking for a new strategy to fight against poverty.