Introduction: City context

Bobo Dioulasso is the second largest city of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou (the capital) is the largest. The city is situated in the west of the country, at crossroads between Ivory Coast and Mali.

After democratisation processes, Bobo Dioulasso gained a special status and financial independence. The city is divided into 3 sectors; Dafra, DÔ and Konsa. The city limits have been expanded in 2006 and the urban community of Bobo Dioulasso now also comprehenses 35 villages. The total surface of the city is 1367.8 km², which counts for around 5.4% of the surface of the Haut Bassins region and 11.8% of the Houet Province, of which Bobo Dioulasso is the capital.

Bobo Dioulasso lies in a mountanious area (average altitude 430 metres), a little higher than the national average of Burkina Faso: 350 metres. Not only for its altitude, but also because several water sources find their origin in this region, the region is called Hau Bassins (High resevoirs). The climat is characterised by an average annual rainfal between 900 and 1200 mm. The climat shows 2 seasons: a dry season from October to May; and a wet season from June to September.

Most important types of urban agriculture in the city

In Bobo Dioulasso, urban agriculture is present in 72% of the city sectors, in both the urban areas (33%) and peri-urban areas surrounding the city (67%). The most common forms of urban agriculture are: cereal production (maize, millet, sorghum), groundnut-production, horticulture, livestock, poultry farming, bee keeping, fruit production, dairy production and combined activities, as well as processing activities (drying of vegetables and fruits or fermentation of milk).

Urban agriculture activities could be further supported in an urban setting by promoting (organic)waste and wastewater recycling (in response to the lack of water and fertilisers), regulating urban agriculture activities and also including these activities in planning (in response to insecure tenure of land and lack of municipal support for the activity).

Multi-stakeholder Policymaking and Action planning on urban agriculture (MPAP) on urban agriculture in Bobo Dioulasso

A local project coordination team named “Coordination du projet agriculture Urbaine de Bobo Dioulasso (CP/AU-B)” has been put in place mid 2006 and has been formally recognized by the Municipality on September 4, 2006. Coordination is in hands of a municipal representative supported by the representative of the rural development institute.
 
The organisation members of the local team include:

• The Municipal Environment Commission, representing the municipal council (Bobo Dioulasso Municipality);
• The Rural development institute/Polytechnic University of Bobo Dioulasso;
• The Agricultural, hydraulic provincial authority of Houet;
• The Environmental and Agricultural Research Institute (INERA);
• The Planning and building Regional Authority of Haut Bassins;
• The Regional Union of Young Producers;
• The Support office for micro enterprises;
• The Agricultural polyvalent centre of Matourkou;
• The Environmental Regional Authority  of Houet;
• The Municipal Technical Service.

The MPAP process started in May 2006 with a Training of Trainers workshop. This training was followed by a MPAP training session attended by 15 participants from various institutions and organisations (municipality, national services, NGOs, farmers' organisations). After the training an exploratory study was implemented and its results presented in a policy seminar (with participation of local policy authorities, parliamentarians, leaders of farmers organisations and development projects).  In November 2006, the first Multi-Stakeholder Forum took place in which 3 topics were identified that should be considered in further action planning:

• Need for an appropriate norms and regulations on urban agriculture;
• Strengthening of production capacities in urban agriculture;
• Strengthening of processing and marketing capacities in urban agriculture.

In an intensive 3-day workshop a City Action Plan on Urban Agriculture was formulated by different groups, each working on one of the issues identified above. The plan was presented to and validated by the Forum in a second Forum meeting held in December 2006. 

Development strategies

The City Action Plan prioritised the following actions:

• Improvement of the institutional framework for the sustainable development of urban and peri-urban agriculture in the municipality of Bobo Dioulasso;
• Strengthening of the urban and peri-urban farmers’ capacities in the city of Bobo-Dioulasso;
• Strengthening urban agriculture processing and marketing activities in the city of Bobo-Dioulasso.

The main results thus far of the process in Bobo Dioulasso are:

• The  inclusion of urban agriculture in the municipal budget for 2007/2008
• The will of the municipality to integrate urban agriculture in the municipal development policy agenda
• Training institutes are interested in the integration of MPAP or some aspects of MPAP in their curricula
• The agricultural extension service increased/improved its services to (peri)urban producers
• A pilot project to valorise the cities green spaces and improve urban agriculture production and livelihood systems is being implemented (see description of ongoig projects below).

In 2008, a further “political orientation document” will be elaborated and meetings with municipal councilors organized to discuss further institutionalization of urban agriculture and proposals for policy formulation/revision on UA.

Examples of ongoing projects
A pilot project named “ Improving of livelihood conditions of urban and peri-urban farmers and valorisation of green spaces in Bobo Dioulasso”  is currently being implemented (to be finalised early 2008). The project has rehabilitated a vacant area of land for urban agriculture production, a.o by the construction of a composting unit, the drilling of 10 sources for groundwater supply and the building of a small storage unit. Twenty urban farmers (10 men, 10 women) as well as 10 nurseries have been granted user-rights to the site and have received technical training as well support in form of seeds and organic fertilisers.
Results of the pilot project, as well as of other activities, will be presented to the Multi-Stakeholder Forum in 2008, in order to give further follow-up to or revise the Action Plan where necessary.

Linkages to regional websites, key documents, photos, maps etc.

For more information on the RUAF-Cities Farming for the Future Programme in the region, contact the regional coordinator at RUAF West-Africa (Francophone) or see their website.

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