Fédération des Organisations de Producteurs du Burkina Faso (National Federation of Producer Organizations of Burkina Faso, FENOP)
Commercial agriculture and international capital are carving up rural Burkina Faso. But FENOP is on the frontlines, confronting the corporate domination of agriculture and organizing small-scale farmers to build a sovereign and popular food system.
The Fédération des Organisations de Producteurs du Burkina Faso or National Federation of Producer Organizations of Burkina Faso (FENOP) works to reinforce and build the capacity of small-scale rural farmers and ranchers in response to the rise of commercial agriculture and economic deregulation in Burkina Faso. Among its priorities, it trains women, gender nonconforming people, and youth in Indigenous practices and educates them on their land rights.
FENOP organizes training, conferences, and debates surrounding agricultural policy and technical skills such as agroecology. It engages a broad range of stakeholder groups, including pastoralists and fishers in riverbank communities. In addition, the organization also provides political education through existing media and offers legal aid to their members. FENOP is also actively involved with the Global Convergence of Land and Water Struggles and helped launch their first regional food sovereignty caravan.
More recently, political instability and violence has created risks for a hunger crisis. To meet this problem, the organization has supported communities to produce local and organic rice, millet, and sorghum, with the vision of long-term food sovereignty.
FENOP is helping to restore control communities to local food providers by organizing against corporate domination of the food system and recovering Indigenous practice and knowledge.
