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Burkina Faso: the organic cotton sector after Monsanto

Audio 48:30

Harvesting cotton in Burkina Faso, one of the country's main economic resources.

AFP/ISSOUF SANOGO

By: Chantal Lorho Follow

1 min

After having been the leading African producer of seed cotton for decades, Burkina Faso experienced setbacks at the end of the 1990s, and thought of getting out of it by turning to the GMO genes of the American giant Monsanto, supposed to be more resilient.

The experiment turned into a disaster: seeds and inputs were expensive, farmers got into debt, chemical fertilizers polluted the soil, animals fell ill, Burkinabè cotton lost its quality label.

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In 2016, a new turn: to revive a sector in difficulty, the country decided to return to conventional cotton cultivation and to support an organic sector started in 2004 with the Helvetas project.

And in 2019, the Burkinabè state even won the lawsuit brought against Monsanto.

Today, in terms of cotton harvest for the 2021-2022 campaign, Burkina Faso occupies 3rd place on the continent, behind Benin 2nd, and Mali the leader.

But where is the Burkinabé organic cotton sector?

Guest:

correspondent for the cotton sector at CIRAD (Centre for International Cooperation in Agricultural Research for Development) in Montpellier.

Report on the organic cotton sector in Burkina Faso by Samuel Turpin and Eric Ouédraogo. 

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