Improving agricultural production through the adoption of agro-ecological practices: The Regional Director of Agriculture for the Centre Nord region learns about the achievements of the Rilgré project.

On June 26, 2025, a delegation from the Direction régionale de l’agriculture, des Ressources Animales et Halieutiques du Centre Nord, led by its CEO, Mr. RayimsomBIRBA, visited the achievements of the “Promotion des pratiques agroécologiques et de valorisation des productions agricoles (Rilgré)” project in the village of Gounga in the commune of Boulsa. The activities visited focused on three (03) links in the rice value chain. These were

• The 05-hectare rice-growing lowland developed and operated by the Namalgzanga cooperative with support from the project;

• The Béo Nèré cooperative for the production of bio-inputs set up by the project;

• From the rice processing unit of the Wendpanga cooperative, beneficiary of a project grant for the acquisition of processing equipment.

At the end of the visit, the Regional Director expressed his satisfaction with the activities visited, and praised the commitment of the players, who are helping to achieve the target of 7 million tonnes of rice to be harvested in the Centre-Nord region, and hence the agrosilvopastoral offensive. He also recommended capitalizing on the experience of the Gounga bio-intrant cooperative to set up a regional union of bio-intrant producers, to enable the government to acquire bio-fertilizers locally and make them available to producers.

The Rilgré project is being implemented by the Solidar Suisse consortium and the Association Beo-Neeré Agroécologie (ABNA) in partnership with the Wendkouni Association. It covers 13 communes in the Plateau-Central, Centre-Nord and Centre-Est regions.

The Rilgré project is financed by the Kingdom of Belgium as part of the implementation of the Portefeuille Thématique Climat Sahel (PTCS)-volet Burkina Faso of the Belgian Development Agency (Enabel Burkina Faso).