ADB money to boost agricultural output

The African Development Bank (ADB) has earmarked US $31 million for a project to boost the incomes of half a million villagers in southwestern Burkina Faso by helping them to grow more food and produce export quality mangoes. Agriculture Minister Salif Diallo told IRIN on Monday part of the money would be spent over six years to help them boost the production of food crops such as cereals, tubers and groundnuts by 40 percent. This would mainly be achieved through small-scale irrigation schemes that would enable a second crop to be grown during the season. Villagers would also be taught to make better use of fertiliser, including animal manure, and the construction of dykes to prevent erosion. Most of the rest of the ADB money would be used to re-plant mango orchards with new high-yielding varieties that produce export quality fruit. Diallo said 486,000 inhabitants of 409 villages in Leraba, Kenedougou and Comoe provinces near the southwestern border with Cote d'Ivoire would also be encouraged to plant 24,000 hectares of new mango orchards. The minister said that only 20 percent of the mangoes produced in these districts at present were of export quality. By planting new high-yielding varieties of superior quality, such as keit and kent, local farmers should be able to treble their present income from growing mangoes from 50,000 CFA (US$90) to 150,000 CFA ($270) per hectare, he noted. Diallo said about 2,000 farmers would receive education and training in how to run a small business with the help of the ADB loan. The agricultural development project aims to more than double grain production in the three districts, which constitute the main bread basket of Burkina Faso,to 811,000 tonnes per year from 355,000 in the current harvest. Diallo described the agricultural development project as a major step towards fighting poverty and reducing hunger. A government survey in July found that 46 percent of Burkina Faso's 12 million people lived below the poverty line on an income of less than US $146 per year. This landlocked country lies on the southern edge of the Sahel desert and despite good rains this year, it frequently suffers drought and food shortages. More than 90 percent of the population live in rural farming communities, where cotton is the main cash crop.