USAID Builds on Efforts to Improve Incomes and Nutrition for Burkina Faso’s Most Vulnerable

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) launched the Yidgiri activity aimed at increasing resilience of agricultural and livestock market systems in Burkina Faso. The 5-year activity will cultivate relationships among farmers, producer organizations and agribusinesses in order to provide markets with greater capacity to adapt to challenges such as droughts, floods and economic and security crises—and help ensure populations have uninterrupted access to sufficient food.

Yidgiri, which means “grow” in the Mòoré language, reflects the activity’s goal to increase household incomes and improve nutrition.

The Yidgiri activity is part of USAID’s Resilience in the Sahel Enhanced, or RISE project, which works with the Government of Burkina Faso to help its citizens permanently escape poverty and build resilience to natural, economic, and other shocks. USAID supports countries and communities to overcome these multifaceted challenges without compromising future well-being. RISE is an integral part of USAID’s long-term focus on building the resilience of the Sahel’s most vulnerable people. RISE helps communities and governments become more self-reliant and capable to meet their own needs.

USAID’s Yidgiri activity will:

• Enhance the performance of market systems in select value chains by facilitating commercial relationships, improving the functionality and profitability of livestock markets, and building the organizational capacity of market actors
• Increase the use of quality agricultural and livestock inputs and services by working with private and public sector actors to reduce cost, improve the quality, and educate farmers on the most efficient and effective use for their farming operations.
• Increase local consumption of nutritious, safe, and affordable foods by promoting consumer demand for these products and supporting market actors to steadily supply safe and nutritious food that is accessible to rural and vulnerable populations, especially women and youth.

Over the course of five years, the $19.5 million dollar USAID Yidgiri activity      aims to improve incomes for 85,000 farmers, increase farmer and producer organization sales by $75 million, and enhance the organizational and risk-management capacity of at least 650 producer organizations and small and medium-sized enterprises in Burkina Faso.