Burkina Faso Improving Water Management and Irrigation Project
Photo: Dominic Chavez / World Bank
Burkina Faso is the largest cotton producer in Sub-Saharan Africa, with cotton's being the country's second most important export commodity in terms of revenue generation - yet small-scale farmers have been wholly reliant on rainwater for cultivation, leaving harvests’ fate subject to the extremes of either drought or flooding from excess rainfall.
This four-year program (extended for a fifth year) -- developed in collaboration with IFC is part of the World Bank's Sahel Irrigation Initiative -- was GPOBA’s first project in Burkina Faso and in direct support of irrigation. The collaborative World Bank-IFC-GPOBA efforts seek to optimize the use of available resources to mitigate the negative effects of climate change on cotton sector productivity by training about 1,000 small-scale cotton farmers in land and water management, investing in small-scale irrigation systems, and facilitating farmers' access to credit.
Read: "Sowing Seeds of a Bright Future for Burkinabe Cotton Farmers"
Related: "Increasing Cotton Yields in Burkina Faso"
As of December 31, 2021, the implementation progress per the results indicators is as follows:
• Number of direct beneficiaries: 2,900 (24% of planned)
• Number of constructed basins: 339
• Areas provided with supplemental irrigation and erosion control infrastructure: 874 hectares (29% of planned)
• Number of farmers provided with supplemental irrigation systems and erosion control infrastructure: 250 (25% of planned)
• Number of farmers trained on using supplemental irrigation, soil management, and erosion control: 472 (49% of planned) All 250 loan contracts are signed or in the conclusion stage with participating local commercial lenders.
