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The Pama Cotton farmers Association or (Pama Cotton Association des agriculteurs) is made up of all the cotton farmers in the Kompienga, Gourma and the Tapoa cotton producing areas of Burkina Faso and are presented by Vlociti Commodites Limited or (Vlociti Commodités Limitée), Burkina Faso
Cotton Farmers in the Kompienga, Gourma, and Tapoa region of Burkina Faso decided to form an association so as to harness resources and compete favourably with the foreign companies. Kompienga is a town located in the Eastern part of
Burkina Faso and has Pama as its capital. The Kompienga Dam located in the Region was built in the 1980s and is the country's first hydro-electric dam and responsible for much of Burkina Faso's electricity supply till date. The Kompienga Region has experienced a dramatic increase in agricultural immigration over the last two decades due to the creation of the Kompienga Lake in the 1980s, making the area very suitable for fish farming, irrigated vegetable farming and cotton cultivation as well. The Kompienga Region has several game reserves and hotels needed for the small scale tourism in the area. It was created during the administrative reform of 1996 and Pama became its provincial capital.It hosts provincial and local administrative authorities as well as some development projects.
Due to its proximity to the hydroelectric dam, Pama was connected to the national electricity grid sooner than any other close town. The population consists mainly of farmers. As elsewhere in the region, Pama’s shopkeepers, traders, craftsmen and as well as the relatively numerous civil servants seem to engage in some farming as well, particularly cotton farming and that gave birth to the Pama Cotton Farmers Association. Pama Cotton farmers Association (PAMACOFA) is registered with the National Union of Cotton Producers or (Union Nationale des Producteurs de Cotton)
Burkina is the leading cotton producing country of Africa as a whole and most of this cotton come from the cotton producing regions in the Eastern Part of Burkina Faso, namely the Gourma, Tapoa and Kompienga region. The Kompienga Region host the large Mossi immigrant community and at the central market the Mossi language seems to outweigh the local Gourmantche language, Kompienga is indeed the hub of the East of Burkina Faso.
The combined factors of persistently low cotton prices, a badly depreciated dollar compared to the euro, the spike in world oil prices and rising input prices have triggered an unprecedented crisis in the cotton producing regions of Burkina Faso thereby necessisating the cotton farmers to form an association and bring resources together so as to engage in large scale mechanized and organic cotton cultivation and production.
Cotton is a major pillar of Burkina Faso's economy. Although it represents only 35% of GDP, it accounts for 70-80 percent of export earnings and is the main source of foreign exchange. Equally important, in many rural areas where poverty is high, the sale of cottonseed is the main or only source of cash revenue for farmers. It is therefore critical in the fight against poverty.
Cotton provides about 1,700.000 jobs, mainly for members of farming households or about 37% of the entire population. The expansion of cotton growing has also stimulated increased production of cereals particularly maize, because fertilizers obtained with the cotton credit are also used for these crops. Poverty has been reduced by a quarter in cotton growing regions like Kompienga, Gourma and other areas.
As in other West African countries, the cotton sector in Burkina Faso is experiencing difficulties. The main reasons are lower world cotton prices and the appreciation of the euro (to which the region's CFA franc is pegged) against the dollar. An inappropriate pricing mechanism has further aggravated the difficulties of the farming communites. Although initiatives to address the problems have begun, more must be done to make the cotton sector more competitive over the long term.
The viability of the sector in Burkina Faso and other West African countries is under pressure from other factors as well, such as the distortions in global cotton trade caused by producer subsidies (especially in the United States and China) and the surge in low cost output from other developing countries (such as Brazil), also due to government subsidy. To ensure the cotton sector's long term viability, however, efforts to raise productivity and make cotton more competitive are crucial. These efforts will require institutional and policy reforms to disseminate advanced techniques and stimulate the use of higher yielding cottonseeds.
One crucial step toward insuring the sector's viability was the adoption of a market based producer price-setting mechanism, which aligns domestic producer prices with world market prices and thus makes producers share part of the increase in profits
Increasing cotton productivity is vital to the Pama Cotton Farmers Association and this can be acheived by reduced government role, reducing the role of government does not necessarily mean it will fully disengage from the sector but should only play a regulatory role. The cotton sector should be propelled by market, economy principles, privatisation and the increased world market integration
Pama Cotton Farmers Association or (Pama Cotton Association des agriculteurs) is expected to boost output by 23% in the 2010-2011 season, harvest is exptected to reach 56,000 metric tons and a further 70,000 metric tons in 2011-2012 crop season. Overall cotton production in Burkina Faso is expected to increase by 67% and harvest is expected to reach 800,000 metric tons in the crop season of 2010-2011. |