Policy-monitoring workshop sharpens focus on food and agriculture trends in Burkina Faso
National stakeholders review public expenditure and price incentive trends of rice, maize, millet, sorghum, groundnuts, onion, cotton, sesame and cattle
Group photo of participants at the workshop in Ouagadougou on 16 December 2025.
The FAO Monitoring and Analysing Food and Agricultural Policies (MAFAP) programme, with the support of the FAO Representation in Burkina Faso, convened a workshop in Ouagadougou on 16 December to present and discuss preliminary policy-monitoring findings on government spending on food and agriculture and on price incentives for farmers and traders for 9 key commodities.
The day-long workshop gathered 22 participants drawn from several public institutions and the private sector. Participants represented five key ministries and national institutions – including the Ministère de l’Agriculture, des Ressources Animales et Halieutiques (MARAH), the Secrétariat permanent de la coordination des politiques sectorielles agricoles (SP-CPSA), the Ministère de l’Économie et des Finances (MEF), the Ministère de l’Industrie, du Commerce et de l’Artisanat (MICA), as well as private-sector representatives from several value chains, including rice, sesame, groundnut, and onion.
From left to right: Mohamed Sylla, Emergency and Resilience Coordinator (FAO Representation in Burkina Faso), Kadidia Doro/Dao, Research Officer at the General Secretariat of the Ministry of agriculture, animal resources and fisheries (MARAH), and Olivier NIKIEMA, director of sectoral statistics and evaluation at the ministry of ECONOMY AND FINANCE.
Reviewing evidence on spending and price incentives
The workshop aimed to gather, discuss and validate policy-monitoring indicators developed using the MAFAP methodologies (see here and here), following earlier data collection, training and validation exercises conducted throughout 2025. Drawing from the latest data update covering 2021–2023, the analysis presented covered:
- Price incentives for nine commodities – rice, maize, millet, sorghum, groundnuts, onion, cotton, sesame and cattle – over the period 2005–2023.
- Public expenditure in support of food and agriculture for 2005–2023.
Economist and MAFAP programme focal point in Burkina Faso, Mahamoudou Koutou, presenting at the workshop.
Sessions opened with a presentation of the MAFAP programme and its analytical framework, followed by detailed reviews of trends in agricultural public expenditure and price incentives. These presentations provided participants with a structured basis to assess how policy choices and market dynamics have affected agricultural producers and value chains in recent years.
Speaking at the event, Kadidia Doro/Dao, Research Officer at the MARAH General Secretariat, said: “We have high hopes for this workshop because it’s going to give us a lot of information to guide ongoing and future decisions of the Ministry. It (this work) allows us to look back and think about how the different measures that have been adopted in the past have incentivized or penalized our producers...I’m sure that we will come away from today with new insights to guide the policy interventions at the Ministry”, she added.
Speaking on behalf of the groundnut sector representative body, Florence Ouedraogo, also stressed the quality of indicators that "can guide decisions taking into account the various segments of the value chain".
Stakeholder dialogue and contextual interpretation
Through plenary discussions and facilitated group work, participants contributed contextual information to strengthen the interpretation of results. Looking at public expenditure trends, the discussions highlighted various factors such as the institutional instability and security challenges affecting the territorial reach of public policies, as well as compliance with donor-related procedures, which have delayed or hindered budget execution in recent years. Participants also pointed to policy measures such as retail price ceilings adopted in 2022 by certain regional governments for maize and cereals, alongside non-policy factors including stockholding behaviour in response to export restrictions, as key drivers shaping observed price incentives.
The exchanges also helped identify remaining data gaps, notably on cattle export prices and onion production volumes. The Directorate General of Sectoral Statistics at MARAH committed to sharing additional information through follow-up technical exchanges to further strengthen the findings.
Economist thibault meilland presenting at the workshop.
Next steps in policy monitoring
Beyond validating results, the workshop served as a platform to discuss next steps toward finalizing and publishing the ‘Burkina Faso Policy Monitoring Review’, due in Q1 2026, with the report expected to support MARAH's sectoral planning.
Contact
Mahamoudou Koutou MAFAP Focal Point in Burkina Faso [email protected]