Burkina Faso’s agricultural sovereignty leaves Tougan farmers facing ruin and rising debt

In Tougan, the reality is stark. Beyond the rhetoric of sovereignty, industrialisation and national production, agricultural producers say they continue to face alone a far less glorious truth: selling their harvests at a loss, repaying their loans and, at times, contemplating crossing the border to survive.

The human cost of an unbalanced system

“Last year, maize did well. They capped the price, and producers made no profit. Now this year, others will cross the border because of the loans,” reports a testimony from Tougan. A situation summed up by one particularly telling phrase: “The producer weeps when the harvest is good, he weeps when the harvest is bad.”

This contradiction raises a fundamental question: where has the priority given to those who feed the nation gone?

Industrial promises versus rural realities

Since coming to power, Ibrahim Traoré has regularly highlighted local production, economic sovereignty and Burkina Faso’s capacity to manufacture certain equipment itself. Announcements about industrial units, particularly those intended for the army’s needs, occupy an important place in this communication.

But an economy cannot be reduced to its factories or its military equipment.

While new industrial capacities are presented as symbols of sovereignty, farmers remain confronted with far more immediate problems: insufficient purchase prices, indebtedness, uncertain markets and low profitability of harvests.

Producing more only makes sense if the producer can also live from their work.

The economic consequences of neglecting agriculture

The problem in Tougan goes beyond the simple case of maize. It raises the question of agricultural investment. What entrepreneur will sustainably agree to invest in a sector where a good harvest can cause prices to fall to the point of ruining the producer, while a bad harvest exposes them directly to debt?

This is precisely where one of the great blind spots of the sovereignty narrative lies: a nation does not become economically independent solely because it manufactures its own weapons. It must also be capable of securing the incomes of those who produce its food.

The paradox is brutal. Burkina wants to produce its equipment locally, but some agricultural producers seem still to be seeking how to sell their own production without losing their investment.

The risk of ignoring the countryside

By consistently highlighting images of factories, machines and military equipment, the authorities risk leaving in the shadows another reality: that of fields, granaries, loans and rural families waiting for concrete solutions.

Sovereignty is not measured only by what a state can manufacture for its army. It is also measured by its capacity to protect those who, every morning, put a seed in the ground to feed the nation.

In Tougan, the question is therefore not how many factories Burkina can inaugurate. The question is simpler, and probably more urgent: how much longer can the producer work without earning a living?

By Ramatou Soumana — Reporter