Insurgency leaves cotton farmers hanging by a thread

LAURENT Koadima yearns for the days when his cotton farm in Burkina Faso allowed him to provide for his family, before advancing jihadists forced them to make sacrifices.

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“Before, we were envied because cotton was a good business and the harvests were good, the 48-year-old said.

“Today, we struggle to live”

Koadima is but one of many in Burkina Faso, among Africa's top producers of cotton, whose output has been decimated due to jihadist fighters stalking the Sahel nation for more than a decade.

Many farmers have fled the violence or been forced to leave their crops untended as the threat of ambush made them too dangerous to pick.

As a result, cotton production fell by more than a quarter in one year, from 386 794 tonnes in 2023 to 286 623 in 2024, according to official figures.

“These past two or three years, it’s been very tough... the security situation means that we've lost much good farmland,’ Koadima said.

“T’ve trouble tending to my family’s needs as last year I was unable to harvest, so currently I'm doing odd jobs and a bit of trading,” he added.

“Two of my children have had to drop out of school”