| Project Detail |
The project aims to improve rural livelihoods and combat environmental degradation in Burkina Faso by promoting organic value chains that sustainably manage resources and enable smallholder farmer cooperatives to access organic markets.
Expected results
Thanks to the integration of 2,500 new farmers into gebana’s supply chain, the project is promoting the expansion of organic agriculture, whilst ensuring a secure access to market and predictable incomes. It also enables the 4,500 farmers, who supply already, to continue doing so. The total of 7,000 farmers will sustainably manage approximately 40,000 ha of cashew and mango orchards thanks to the contribution of this project. The activities on composting will contribute to combating soil erosion as well as the negative impacts of climate change and make the soils more resilient. They will also promote sustainable resource management by supporting the cycling of waste and avoiding pollution through inappropriate disposal. gebana’s new factory with its water treatment facility, emissions filter and other technologies promoting sustainable waste management and resource use that are not part of this project can serve as an inspiration for similar cashew and mango-processing businesses in Burkina Faso and the region.
Target group / Beneficiaries
Currently, gebana trains supplying farming families on organic and good agricultural practices, and conducts the internal control system, organizes the certification process and pays for the certification costs, as the certificate is owned by gebana. However, the EU has adopted a new regulation on organic produce that requires farmers cooperatives to have their own organic certification from 2025 onwards, as opposed to the processing and exporting companies holding it for them.
Whilst one of the aims behind the new regulation is to empower farmers and cooperatives, most small-scale farmers in Burkina Faso are not organised in cooperatives and do not have the managerial capacities or financial means to obtain organic certification. This poses a serious risk that many unorganized farmers or small-scale farming cooperatives will lose access to organic markets, leaving them unable to sell their produce as organic and likely discouraging them from sustainable organic production. This is why, through this project, gebana intends to support the approximately 4,500 small-scale farmers it currently works with as well as the 2,500 new farmers to organise themselves in cooperatives, obtain organic certification and develop their organisational capacities so that they can gain more autonomy in the mid to long-term. |
