Famines are a Thing of the Past: Food Security Trends in Northern Burkina Faso

Abstract

Sub-Saharan Africa is often portrayed as a region of chronic hunger, conflict, and poverty. The country of Burkina Faso is a bright spot on the continent where government agencies, NGOs, and development organizations have progressively improved food security to the point where citizens often state, “famines of the past could never happen again.” This study evaluates such claims by looking at food security trends over the last 18 years using ethnographic participatory fieldwork and grain price data. Community members have invested in numerous soil and water conservation (SWC) measures that buffer their crops from droughts and agro-climatic variability. There is also a national famine early warning system in place and improved infrastructure that helps the government and NGOs efficiently provide food assistance in times of need. Thus, fewer households are affected when droughts occur due to these adaptations and food insecurity is not as severe or widespread as in the past. Local grain prices are, however, rising and becoming more closely linked to world food markets. Just as most households are becoming more food secure, those who are dependent on grain purchases are becoming more food insecure.

A pathway to inclusive sustainable intensification in agriculture? Assessing evidence on the application of agroecology in Tanzania

“…2016, Ghosh 2014, Brown 2016. In addition, a body of work confirms the productivity and viability of this production mode under the wider heading of sustainable agriculture-see Pretty 2001Pretty , 2002Pretty , 2003, as well as the environmental benefits of soil and water conservation practices (West et al 2014, Scoones 2001. Whilst many of these conclusions are drawn on the basis of small case studies, there is wider evidence that an agroecological approach can be transformatory on a much larger scale.…”

Public and Private Responses to Food Insecurity: Complementarity in Burkina Faso

“…Consumer millet prices for Kongoussi in 2002, 2004, and 2012 indicate the relative food insecurity among these three periods (see Figure ; West et al. ). Collectively, these periods of fieldwork correspond to times of both high food insecurity and also high food security .…”

Migration and Land-Use and Land-Cover Change in Burkina Faso: a comparative case study

“…In certain northern provinces such as Bam, mining, coupled with SWC projects, enable local residents to diversify their livelihoods (West 2010). Examples of SWC techniques include contour stone bunds (locally referred to as diguettes), semi-permeable dikes, and zaï pockets (West et al 2014). These projects aimed to improve rural livelihoods by "[rehabilitating] the productive capacity of the land through better control of rainfall and runoff, as well as through improved soil fertility management and reforestation" (Reij, Tappan and Belemviré 2005: 643).…”

“…Local restorative initiatives such as reforestation and massive SWC projects like those of PATECORE (which worked in over 200 villages) could be behind this regreening and decreased famine. According to farmers, "famines are [now] a thing of the past" because improved agricultural techniques and investment in livestock have helped them adapt to drought (West et al 2014). In the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso, SWC projects stimulated the "rehabilitation of 200,000 to 300,000 hectares of land and the production of an additional 80,000 tons of food per year" (IFAD 2011: 3).…”

“…In response to these droughts and degradation, the northern Central Plateau region has been the site of numerous large-scale Soil and Water Conservation (SWC) development projects (Reij, Tappan and Belemviré 2005). Considered a desertification hotspot, the Bam province in northern Burkina Faso, has been studied intensively by human ecologists (Batterbury 1997;Reij, Tappan and Belemviré 2005;West, Roncoli and Ouattara 2008;West et al 2014). Scholars conclude that SWC efforts have reversed land degradation and that they have had beneficial impacts on households and communities.…”