USAID Office of Food for Peace Burkina Faso Bellmon ... - CiteSeerX

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so that they better support sustainable crop production and help to address the root
causes of hunger. The vision behind this initiative is that by 2015, a significant number
of smallholder farmers – including women – will produce large surpluses of food, sell
them at a fair price and earn better incomes.
6. In terms of early warning and responses to recurrent food crises, the GOBF manages a
National Security Stock that can be mobilized in case of large cereal production
shortfalls. Its use (free distributions and/or subsidized sales) is subject to the
recommendation of the Technical Committee of the National Food Security Council (CT-
CNSA) whose members are the EU, France, Netherlands and WFP. An Intervention
Stock of a smaller capacity has also recently been created under the government’s full
control and management.
Given price fluctuations as well as availability of stocks, signals to producers must be consistent
and provide an incentive for investment. Though the incentives outlined above should assist
producers, policy disincentives must also be monitored. GOBF policy must strike a balance to
protect consumers from higher food prices as well as maintain incentives for productivity-raising
investment and supply response, particularly for staple grains and cereals (including rice).
According to FAO’s study on food price hikes, the GOBF took the following specific policy
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responses to protect consumers from rising commodity prices in 2008 :
Provided school/hospital feeding with a basic meal;
Consumer price control and stabilization on most staple foods;
Reduction/elimination of consumption taxes on grains and other staple foods;
Reduction in producer taxes on grains and other staple foods;
Adjustment of export quotas/control on staples;
Reduction/elimination of import tariff and quotas on staple foods; and
Partial payment of poor households’ energy and water bills.
25 FAO. 2009. “The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets: High Food Prices and the Food Crisis – Experiences
and Lessons Learned.”
102 BEST ANALYSIS – BURKINA FASO