Banfora City Government: Special Mission for Charm Operation of PARCLIDAD Project Financing

Nearly 1.8 billion CFA francs are needed to implement the PARCLIDAD project, initiated by the Banfora Municipality, which aims to transform the capital of the Cascade region into a national symbol of modern sustainable agriculture with low environmental impact and able to adapt to climate change.

In order to present this initiative to potential technical and financial partners, the Special Mission is organizing exchange workshops on the project. During the two days of work, some information will be presented to the participants with a view to obtaining their voluntary support and commitment to support the project with the necessary resources. The project has already received support from technical and financial partners such as the Austrian Embassy, ​​Oxfam, the Agricultural Resilience and Competitiveness Project (PReCA) and the National Agricultural Support Agency (ADCT) of the local authorities.

Contributing to food security in the Cascade region

For years, Burkina Faso has been experiencing security and humanitarian crises, which have had an impact on food security. This can be seen among the host population and internally displaced persons in different municipalities. Moreover, agriculture’s contribution to development is essential, but it has not yet achieved this goal as a driver of sustainable development in Burkina Faso. “Therefore, it is clear that there are still major challenges to be addressed,” acknowledged Yakouba Barro, head of the special delegation to the city of Banfora.

For him, the priority is to increase investment in production, support production, processing and conservation, marketing and marketing infrastructure, use of surface and groundwater, water-saving irrigation techniques, etc. “Training and capacity building are also important,” he added.

The initiative of this project therefore demonstrates the commitment of the Special Municipal Delegation to contribute to the food security of its citizens. This project, if implemented, will contribute a little to achieving the food sovereignty desired by the country’s authorities. “We are implementing the agro-pastoral-fishery offensive, which is an initiative of the government in agriculture. This is what prompted us to consider this project,” said the head of the Special Municipal Delegation.

He also explained that the project has three objectives. “This involves the development of market gardening areas in five villages in the commune of Banfora and the creation of field schools through the development of these areas; taking into account the gender aspect. This is about giving women access to these market garden areas that we are going to develop. Finally, there is also the question of how to adapt the infrastructure that we use to develop market gardening areas to climate change. It is about the effective and efficient use of water,” he explained.

Partners pledge to support the project

The opening ceremony of the project took place on Thursday, June 27, with the participation of stakeholders. Speaking on behalf of the partners present at the ceremony, ADCT General Director Raïssa Yaméogo/Dabiré welcomed this initiative by the Banfora Commune. For her part, she confirmed that it was not by chance that ADCT chose to sponsor this workshop and mobilize technical and financial resources to implement this agricultural development project.

In fact, according to him, the National Agency for Support to the Development of Local Authorities (ADCT), created by the Government of Burkina Faso through the transformation of the FPDCT, aims to promote the development of local authorities by mobilizing, centralizing and providing all financial and technical support to them. “This project, among others, is the municipality’s response to the concerns of the population. That is why the ADCT insists on this great initiative through my voice and reiterates its availability and support to support this project,” she expressed.

The ADCT partnership will include supporting municipalities to present their projects to all stakeholders and potential partners through the organization of round tables and providing municipalities with all the technical support they have. The ADCT Director invites all technical and financial partners to join the initiative by providing funding for the actions included in PARCLIDAD.

The ceremony was presided over by the High Commissioner of the Department of Comoé, Mathieu Tinguery, who congratulated the municipality for hosting this seminar. He also welcomed the idea of ​​the project, which he considered “a major agricultural project to promote market horticulture production for food sovereignty in the commune and in the province and region”.

The chairman of the ceremony said that this innovative project, which is in line with the agricultural, livestock and fishery offensive, deserves the support of technical and financial partners. Considering the relevance of the project, he hopes that at the end of the discussion, the partners will be particularly interested in this project, which will bring great happiness to the people of the city. If the financing is completed on time, the project is scheduled to start in 2025 and last for three years.

Romuald Dauphiny

Lefaso.com