A troubling paradox in Tougan
In Tougan, the reality is stark. Behind the rhetoric of sovereignty, industrialisation and national production, agricultural producers say they continue to face a far less glorious reality alone: selling their harvests at a loss, repaying their loans and, at times, considering crossing the border to survive.
“Last year, the maize did well. They capped the price, and the producers made no profit. This year, others will cross the border because of the loans,” reports a testimony from Tougan. A situation summed up by a particularly telling phrase: “The producer weeps when the harvest is good, and weeps when the harvest is bad.”
This contradiction raises a fundamental question: where has the priority given to those who feed the country gone?
Industrial promises vs. agricultural realities
Since coming to power, Ibrahim Traoré has regularly highlighted local production, economic sovereignty and Burkina Faso’s capacity to manufacture certain equipment itself. Announcements about industrial units, particularly those intended for the army’s needs, occupy a prominent place in this communication.
But an economy is not limited to its factories or military equipment.
While new industrial capacities are presented as symbols of sovereignty, farmers remain confronted with much more immediate problems: insufficient purchase prices, indebtedness, uncertain markets and low profitability of harvests.
Producing more only makes sense if the producer can also live from their work.
The deeper crisis of agricultural investment
The problem in Tougan goes beyond the simple case of maize. It raises the question of agricultural investment. What entrepreneur will durably agree to invest in a sector where a good harvest can cause prices to fall to the point of ruining the producer, while a bad harvest exposes them directly to debt?
This is precisely one of the major blind spots of the sovereignty narrative: a nation does not become economically independent solely because it manufactures its own weapons. It must also be able to secure the incomes of those who produce its food.
The paradox is brutal. Burkina wants to produce its equipment locally, but some agricultural producers still seem to be looking for ways to sell their own production without losing their investment.
The overlooked reality of the fields
By focusing on images of factories, machines and military equipment, the authorities risk leaving in the shadows another reality: that of the fields, granaries, loans and rural families waiting for concrete solutions.
Sovereignty is not measured only by what a state can manufacture for its army. It is also measured by its capacity to protect those who, every morning, put a seed in the ground to feed the nation.
In Tougan, the question is therefore not how many factories Burkina can inaugurate. The question is simpler, and probably more urgent: how much longer can the producer work without earning a living?