Bobo-Dioulasso, (AIB)-As part of the follow-up tour of the 2022-2023 dry season agricultural campaign, the Minister of Agriculture, Animal Resources and Fisheries, Denis Ouédraogo, visited on Saturday March 11, 2023 , the rice plain of Bama where more than three thousand tons of rice are expected.
Launched on November 24, 2022 in the Center-West region, the 2022-2023 dry agricultural campaign is in full swing in the Hauts-Bassins region.
In order to follow its evolution and encourage producers, the Minister of Agriculture, Animal and Fisheries Resources, Denis Ouédraogo, visited the rice plain of Bama which was in the maintenance phase, on Saturday 11 March 2023, to ensure the smooth running of activities.
The minister said he was satisfied with the development of speculation.
According to Dénis Ouédraogo, with a capacity of 1,260 ha, 575 ha were developed and exploited during this agricultural campaign. This low rate of exploitation is due to the obsolescence of the irrigation system, which dates from 1975.
“This year, one of the projects of the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal and Fisheries Resources will rehabilitate the plain. This will allow us to exploit the entire developable area, ”he reassured.
According to him, a significant production of rice of more than 60,000 tonnes is expected in the province of Houet at the end of the 2022-2023 dry agricultural campaign.
“With an average income of 5.5 tonnes per hectare, the Bama Rice Plain will no doubt contribute to the achievement of these objectives,” said Denis Ouédraogo.
The producers of the rice-growing plain of Bama took the opportunity to present their difficulties to the Minister.
These include the low flow of water, the dilapidated state of the irrigation network dating from 1975, non-compliance with the specifications by some producers, the difficulty of access to inputs and credits, lack of agricultural equipment.
To these difficulties, the Minister reassured that his department will make every effort to resolve them.
“We are going to work to resolve certain difficulties that depend on us. Regarding access to inputs, we have a fertilizer mixer in Koupéla which will start production at the end of this month. It will solve a little bit the access to inputs,” said Dénis Ouédraogo.
For agricultural equipment, the Ministry in charge of Agriculture intends to put in place a strategy to acquire motorized cultivators and offer them at competitive prices, according to its first official.
Dénis Ouédraogo and his delegation were able to see the realities of the lack of water in a part of the plain where dry crops are grown. This part of the plain is called by the producers, “sahel”, because of the severe lack of water.
“It is the lack of water that has led producers to cultivate other crops, namely corn, okra, potatoes to make money,” he added.
According to the Regional Director in charge of Agriculture in the Hauts-Bassins, Hugues Romain Ouédraogo, the forecasts for this dry season agricultural campaign for the Hauts-Bassins region are estimated at more than 627,000 tonnes, all speculations combined, of which more than 3 000 tons of rice in the Bama rice plain.
To listen to him, the said plain received for this dry agricultural campaign 91 tons of NPK fertilizer and 72 tons of rice seeds for production.
“A total of 9 cooperatives bringing together 1,385 producers, including 85 women who work there,” suggested the regional director.
Harvests are expected around late April-early May 2023.
Source: Burkina Information Agency