Burkina DryMore ProgrammeExtending Agro-Processing Beyond Mango Season in Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso’s dried mango sector is a global success—but its seasonality limits jobs, revenues, and investment. Through the Burkina Dry-More programme, Sense supported the design and early implementation of an off-season processing model, helping agro-processors diversify into new dried products and build a more resilient, inclusive agro-processing sector.
What We Did
Results
Why It Matters
What We Did
- Led market-driven crop selection and feasibility analysis, narrowing six potential crops to three viable off-season products: ginger, fonio, and hibiscus.
- Supported processing pilots, quality testing, and buyer engagement, grounding diversification decisions in real export market requirements.
- Designed and facilitated a Processor Academy, strengthening processors’ understanding of processing economics, technology choices, and scaling pathways.
- Contributed to processing technology development, including the design and piloting of new equipment for fonio and ginger cleaning, washing, and pre-processing.
Results
- 3 new value chains activated for off-season processing using existing mango infrastructure.
- 6 processors and aggregators engaged as core change agents in diversification, technology testing, and market engagement.
- 474 smallholder farmers trained in Year 1 on Good Agricultural Practices and Climate-Smart Agriculture (350 men, 124 women).
- 2 export containers of fonio shipped to the Netherlands, with commercial relationships established with EU buyers.
- Processing bottlenecks (food safety, moisture control, cleaning) clearly identified and addressed through equipment prototypes and revised processing protocols.
Why It Matters
- Scaling agri-processing in Africa requires year-round utilisation of processing assets, not seasonal factories.
- By enabling off-season diversification, Burkina Dry-More helps stabilise jobs for women and youth, increase processor revenues, and reduce risk.
- Sense’s market-anchored, enterprise-first approach prevents premature investments and aligns technology, finance, and market demand.
- The programme provides a replicable model for extending successful export sectors into new products—strengthening resilience in fragile contexts.
