West Africa

Cross commodities
A background paper on experiences with Farmer Field Schools on Good Agricultural Practices was prepared for a national stock-taking meeting in Burkina Faso. The paper draws on experiences from FFS for fruits (mango), vegetables, rice, traditional grains, roots and tubers and niébé & sesame.

• Traoré, K & A.M. Toe (2008) Capitalisation des Initiatives sur les Bonnes Pratiques Agricoles au Burkina Faso. Ministère de l’Agriculture de l’Hydraulique et des Ressources Halieutiques, Secrétariat Général Direction Générale des Productions Végétales, Direction de la Vulgarisation et de la Recherche Développement

Cotton
A workshop was organised with key stakeholders from the cotton chain in Burkina Faso, Benin and Mali to evaluate the results of the FAO IPPM programme and to propose immediate actions to be undertaken in the context of the AAACP programme, especially to build the capacities of the cotton producers and their organizations.

• FAO/APROCA (2008) Atelier de formulation des activités du "Projet sous-régional d'appui à l'intensification durable et à la diversification des systèmes cotonniers du Burkina Faso, du Bénin et du Mali" dans le cadre du "Programme tous ACP relatif aux produits de base agricoles" Ouagadougou 23, 24 et 25 avril 2008

One of the recommendations from the workshop was to support diversification options for cotton farmers. To this end, a study on markets for fodder and fodder seed production was undertaken.

• Sanou, F.K. (2008) Production et commercialisation de fourrages en zone urbaine de Bobo-Dioulasso: possibilités de développement

The AAACP permitted the FAO IPM FFS programme to extend its support to Benin. In 2009 more than 9000 cotton farmers and almost 200 trainers from ginners and farmer organizations were trained on IPPM and GAP in Burkina Faso, Mali and Benin. In 2010 the programme moved on to building the capacity of key cotton stakeholders to implement and run independently their own training programmes on IPPM.