World Food Day 2024 - Meet the Women Parboiled Rice Producers from Burkina Faso

LED representative Marion Reichenbach with UNERIZ Secretary Alimatou Ouédraogo (outside right) and other UNERIZ representatives in front of the rice barn. (Photo: Austrian Development Agency, ADA)

 

Media information on 16 October 2024

With hard work, rice and courage towards participatory food systems

 

Around 1'100 parboiled rice producers and 1'500 rice farmers in Burkina Faso are making an important contribution to improving the food situation in their region thanks to their participation in an LED project. The Liechtenstein Development Service (LED) has been supporting the forward-looking project, which also aims to improve the economic and political conditions for women in Burkina Faso, since April 2023.

 

LED project manager Marion Reichenbach met the rice parboilers in person during a project trip to Burkina Faso. In their conversations, the women talked about the challenges they face in their everyday lives and the opportunities and chances this project has given them. They reported on their multiple burdens as producers, business and family women and the discrimination in the communities, where women are often held in low esteem. Together with the ADA (Austrian Development Agency) and the local partner organisation UNERIZ (national umbrella organisation of women parboilers in Burkina Faso), the LED can improve their situation with this project - because women who participate on an equal footing in an agricultural enterprise, e.g. as decision-makers in a cooperative, often receive more respect, as their income benefits the whole family and often also the communities and the entire region.

 

Professional and financial support needed
Marion Reichenbach visited the parboiling centres around the Burkinabe capital Ouagadougou and explains in summary: ‘Without financial and technical support from outside, equal participation is difficult, especially because traditionally only men own land and tractors. The project gives the ‘parboilers’ access to equipment and business management courses,’ continues the LED project manager, ’further training is crucial, because organising parboiling production in such a way that their high-quality products achieve good market prices is a challenging task. The women make investments, buy large quantities of good quality paddy rice at a favourable market price and ensure that it is properly processed, packaged and stored. They are also responsible for sales and marketing.’ 

Good future prospects for parboiled rice producers

The 1,100 parboiled rice producers involved in the LED project source the paddy rice - the raw material for producing parboiled rice - from 1,500 rice farmers from four rice production cooperatives in neighbouring areas.This results in a total of 2,600 direct beneficiaries for this LED project.

Parboiled rice (short for ‘partially boiled’) is considered a high-quality product and still contains around 80% of its natural minerals and vitamins thanks to the special production process. This makes it significantly healthier than conventionally husked rice varieties. In a country with a critical nutritional situation such as Burkina Faso, demand for parboiled rice is on the rise.

 

Media contact: Alexandra Ospelt, +41 222 09 79 or 782 09 79