This initiative is supported by the Centre for Competence in Organic and Fair Trade Agricultural Supply Chains at Helvetas head office and by the various Helvetas offices in the region (Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal).

The protected areas within the PBR are owned by the state and the park authorities tolerate local people’s farming activities. Conventional cotton production – which is the most important source of monetary income in a context of predominantly subsistence agriculture – has several disadvantages: the purchasing price is falling constantly and the production methods used emit a heavy discharge of pesticides which persist in the pools and rivers, endangering the health of both humans and animals.

The project’s main activities relate to the following aspects:

• Creating and building the capacity of a local structure to manage organic and fair trade cotton production in direct collaboration with the local ginning factory by training technical and managerial staff;
• Supporting this local structure and the public authorities to set up a close management framework for the producers;
• Supporting the implementation of procedures for organic and fair-trade certification;
• Identifying and experimenting with new organic farming techniques that are technically effective, economically viable and socially acceptable;
• Supporting the implementation of a voluntarist policy (micro-credit) to provide access to equipment (carts);
• Raising awareness about the risks and dangers of synthetic chemicals.

Project area

23 villages in the ZOC of the Pendjari Biosphere Reserve in Tanguiéta and Matéri municipalities of Atacora district.

The project is based on the principle of a partnership between actors of the various different links in the supply chain. It lays particular emphasis on strengthening the local people’s existing organisational structure in order to turn it into an autonomous actor in the organic and fair-trade cotton supply chains. The partnership between this structure and the Péhunco ginning factory is the key to the organic and fair-trade cotton supply chain. Service providers such as the Centre Régional de la Promotion Agricole (CeRPA), l’Organisation Béninoise pour la Promotion de l’Agriculture Biologique (OBEPAB) and research institutes will support the process on demand.

• Production. The producers are organised into a producer organisation and can manage an organic cotton production system sustainably (included rotation crops).
• Certification and sales. The cotton is certified organic and fair trade according to a functioning internal control system and the entire production is sold as such.
• Coordination and set-up of supply chain partnership. Stakeholders from the various links in the chain coordinate their activities efficiently and in a sustained manner.
• Communication and knowledge management. Participants’ experiences are documented, capitalized upon and disseminated through the appropriate communication channels.