Tougan farmers speak out: debt, despair and the sovereignty debate Burkina Faso cannot ignore
In Tougan, the picture that emerges is far removed from the triumphant narrative of national sovereignty. Behind official declarations on industrialisation and domestic production, agricultural producers describe a harsher reality: selling their harvests at a loss, struggling to repay credits, and, in some cases, contemplating crossing the border simply to survive.
“Last year, maize did well. They capped the price, and the producers made no profit. This year, others will cross the border because of the credits,” reports a testimony from Tougan. The situation is captured in one particularly telling phrase: “The producer weeps when the harvest is good, and he weeps when the harvest is bad.”
This contradiction raises a fundamental question: what has become of the priority supposedly given to those who feed the nation?
Official discourse versus rural reality
Since coming to power, Ibrahim Traoré has consistently 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.
Yet an economy cannot be reduced to its factories or its military equipment.
While new industrial capacities are presented as symbols of sovereignty, farmers remain confronted with far more immediate problems: insufficient purchase prices, indebtedness, uncertain markets, and low profitability of their crops.
Producing more only makes sense if the producer can also live from his work.
The broader investment question
The problem in Tougan therefore 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 drive prices down to the point of ruining the producer, while a bad harvest exposes him directly to debt?
This is precisely where one of the major blind spots of the sovereignty narrative lies: a nation does not become economically independent solely because it manufactures its own weapons. It must also be capable of securing the incomes of those who produce its food.
The paradox is stark. Burkina wants to produce its equipment locally, but some agricultural producers seem still to be searching for ways to sell their own output without losing their investment.
What comes next for rural families
By consistently highlighting images of factories, machines, and military equipment, the authorities risk leaving in the shadows another reality: that of the fields, the granaries, the credits, and the 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 Faso can inaugurate. The question is simpler, and probably more urgent: how much longer can the producer work without earning a living?
