Activity: What’s a fair deal for cotton farmers?

Learning objectives:

• To present the situation of a cotton farmer in Burkina Faso or Mali
• To look at ways of giving the cotton farmers a fairer deal
• To begin to recognise issues around trade justice and fairness and that this requires global partnerships (Goal 8)
• To decide on actions we can take in the UK

You will need:

• Case study on Mr. Moussa, a farmer in Burkina Faso
• Background notes for teachers, pupils should use information provided but in a form the teacher decides is most suitable

 Time required:

One hour

 Instructions:

• Give pupils the case study to read on Mr Moussa and his family in Burkina Faso which highlights how difficult life is for farmers
• Hold a discussion on ‘What can the farmers do?’ Link this to MDG8
• Create a drama with farmers from Burkina Faso and Mali arguing their case to the European Union or G8 Summit of world leaders. Share the roles out around groups within the class with two farmer groups and several country groups for example the US and Portugal (both cotton growers) and the UK or Germany (not cotton growers). Choose countries the pupils may already have some knowledge of. Pupils use the information to present different points of view
• Teacher to provide additional information using the background notes
• Discuss a positive way forward and ways to support poor farmers

Links to:

• Playing the ‘trading game’, a simulation of world trade would compliment this activity. Recommended for an enrichment day workshop

Case Study on cotton farmer in Burkina Faso

Mr Moussa and his family of three wives and seven children say it is hard to survive on the cotton earnings

For Mr Moussa, growing cotton is his best chance of forging a living for himself and his family in his home country, having previously worked on cocoa plantations in neighbouring West African state Ivory Coast .

"I started to grow cotton to get money," he says. "There was nothing else to do but cotton."

White gold

In a landscape scattered with mud houses, donkeys and carts, under the clearest of clear blue skies, Mr Moussa explains how his seven-hectare cotton farm brings in 500,000 CFA a year (£520), helping him care for his three wives and seven children.

At harvest time, cotton buyers negotiate their trucks on these mud tracks, eager to get the cotton, which the Burkinabe people call white gold, to market.

But earning the money he needs to keep his family fed, clothed and in school is getting harder as cotton prices fall.

Three years ago, he got 210 CFA (22p.) per kilo of cotton. In the year ahead, he expects to get 165 CFA (17p.) per kilo.

Mr Moussa sees only one reason for lower cotton prices, namely America 's subsidies to its own cotton farmers. These have led to oversupply on the world market, and this extra supply is depressing prices. "In the US , the state helps them, here the state doesn't help us," he says.

Up to 310,000 families make their living from cotton in Burkina Faso , that is about three million people (out of the national population of 13 million) rely on the income from cotton.

What can the cotton farmers do?

Which MDG is the most relevant here?

What should the cotton farmers do?

• Carry on campaigning for an end to unfair subsidies to farmers in richer countries
• Set up trade barriers to keep out cheaper foreign cotton?
• Develop the Fair trade partnership option. M&S recently announced that 20 million cotton garments at its stores are to be Fairtrade certified helping 10,000 farmers in Burkina Faso , Mali and other poor countries

Background notes

• Cotton was one of the main crops grown by slaves in the past. In America ’s southern states where West African’s were imported in their thousands or in British India as colonial subjects
• Cotton is an important export for both Burkina Faso and Mali
• Total EU cotton production is smaller than in West and Central Africa
• EU farmers produce 2.5% of the world’s cotton but receive 17% of cotton subsidies
• Today the world cotton trade is unfair to subsistence farmers in Burkina Faso and Mali because of large domestic subsidies being offered to cotton producers in the US, EU and China
• In 2004 West African farmers achieved only 30% of the world cotton price while subsidised US producers were paid 70% over the world price
• There has been a long term decline in cotton prices
• Brazil challenged the US subsidy system in the WTO, and won. In March 2005 the WTO Dispute Settlement Body decreed that US cotton subsidies distorted world trade and that the system needed to be changed
• Cotton uses 10% of the world’s pesticides and 25% of the world’s insecticides
• Fairtrade cotton used in jeans and underwear is produced by farmers in Mali and Senegal in Africa . The premium they are receiving from the jeans and underwear will help them to invest in the development of a new school, health centre and nursery.

30 years ago, cotton farming provided farmers in Mali with enough to cover the costs of their farming and feed themselves and their families. Cotton prices have fallen massively over the past 30 years; so that in 2005 cotton farmers in Mali couldn´t earn a sustainable living from selling cotton

The cost of production for US cotton is three times as much than in Burkina Faso, a country in which more than two million people depend on cotton production. Over half of these farmers live below the poverty line. The value of subsidies granted to US cotton producers is greater than the total national income of Burkina Faso.

Mali is one of the world’s biggest cotton producers. It has near perfect growing conditions with heavy rainfall in early summer to establish the plants and soil and hot sun doing the rest. The cotton is high quality being hand picked at the optimum time. Approximately three million people - or a quarter of the Malian population - live directly from cotton production. Cotton production provides up to 75 per cent of household income in some regions and provides revenue for local cereal production. Incomes from cotton also contribute to local investment in health, education and water supplies, to 25 per cent of government export revenues, and to overall economic growth at six per cent of GDP. (Oxfam report)

Notes for EU/G8 leaders

• Farmers have a lot of votes we don’t want to upset them and lose votes
• Giving support to our farmers means unemployment doesn’t go up
• It’s important to support home production of raw materials so we don’t need to import
• It’s safer to have home supplied raw materials
• Supporting local farmers and buying local products reduces air miles

Action:

How do you feel about this situation?

What should happen?

What can we do in the UK ?

For ideas go to the ‘What can I do’ section of the website and look at the EU and Unfair trade agreements

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Burkina farmers struggle to get a good price for the white gold

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mr Moussa and his family say it is hard to survive on the cotton earnings