Under the AgrInvest-Food Systems Project (AgrInvest-FS), FAO, in partnership with the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM), is fostering SDG-aligned investments in agri-food systems in Africa to contribute to sustainable economic growth and boost rural employment, particularly for women and youths. With the financial support of the Government of Italy, the project is implemented in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya and the Niger.

In Burkina Faso, by assessing the national food system and organizing various multi stakeholders consultations, the AgrInvest-FS project has identified the rice value chain as a promising sector to be supported to unlock sustainable investments opportunities.

In early November 2021, the AgrInvest-FS project, organized a two-days training event on participatory business planning for rice entrepreneurs using the FAO tool Rural Invest in Dédougou, Burkina Faso.

The need to build the capacity of small actors engaged in the rice sector on business management emerged as one of the main barriers to mobilize financing in the value chain analysis developed by the AgrInvest-SA project, which will be released by January 2022. 

The RuralInvest toolkit of FAO is a methodology that facilitates the identification, preparation, ex-ante analysis, monitoring and evaluation of the impact of small to medium-scale investment projects, whether revenue generating or not, and the development of businesses in rural areas.

For this reason, the project provided small agribusinesses with the necessary support to prepare investment proposals for financing in Burkina Faso. The tool will be used to draw out project information on their agricultural initiatives, and will aid the efficient development of detailed business plans for the rice sector.

In order to comply with the safety measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of participants attending the event was limited.

The workshop was attended by 25 participants, including representatives of the General Directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture (MAAHM) of the Boucle du Mouhoun, targeted rice sector entrepreneurs, the Chinese-Burkinabè agricultural cooperation programme (PCA/CH-BF), and FAO.

The workshop served not only as a venue to build the capacity of rice entrepreneurs to develop bankable business plans, but also for presenting the results of the abovementioned value chain assessment of the rice value chain.