Burkina Faso - The National Union of Burkinabe cotton producers has negotiated a national subsidy of 6 milliard FCFA (9 million euros) for input supply for cotton-cultivators.

This subsidy was the result of fierce negotiations with the Ministery of Agriculture after that local unions had found out that Malinese producers get better prices for their cotton than Burkinabe producers.

The exchange between Malian farmers’ unions and Burkinabe unions had been organised by SNV Mali and Burkina with their counterparts in the Bobo-Dioulasso area. Leaders talked about price setting mechanisms of cotton and inputs. The Burkina-Be found out that this price setting was not only based on market-fluctuations, as was told by the cotton company and the national cotton union, but also on political power. Hence they forced their national union to go back and negotiate a better deal for them.