Vulnerability of peasant cotton farmers in the Eastern region of Burkina Faso

Cotton farming in Burkina Faso is going through one of the deepest crises of its history. This crisis results from the very nature of a crop produced in an increasingly harsh Sudano-Sahelian environment and which is essentially exported, and therefore exposed to the vagaries of international markets. Accordingly, it places the producers in a situation with increased risks which could lead to the impoverishment of rural populations, particularly in the east of the country where the conditions of culture are less favourable than in the old western cotton area. Considering the social and economic importance of cotton - nearly a quarter of the population lives directly or indirectly off of this crop and the State is largely dependent on its production which represents 56 % of the country's total exports (ocde, 2006) - cotton policies have to take into account all of the factors that exacerbate the vulnerability of farmers in order to turn towards a sustainable improvement in production and diversification of cultivations. Such are the sine qua non conditions that the Burkinabe industry has to cope with in order to recover competitiveness, now largely diminished, on the international market.