Ways Forward? Technical Choices, Intervention Strategies and Policy Options 389north-west (Government of Burkina Faso, 1999). The cost of this activity,
estimated to be 5.9 billion CFA francs (equivalent to US$9.7 million), may
well be covered from a range of interested donors who often find it easier to
provide a single large payment of funds than a smaller, regular commitment.- A macro-policy focus, which aims to influence policy measures in ways likely to
improve the incentives faced by smallholder farmers. Such a macro-level focus
requires that farmers be sufficiently well-integrated into economic and policy
circuits for changes at macro-level to have an impact at farm level. This is
much more assured where farmers are already engaged in cash-crop produc-
tion and reliant on significant levels of purchased inputs. In such cases, price
changes for inputs and outputs can have a major and rapid impact on choice
of crop, and the level and type of soil-fertility inputs used. In other areas more
distant from markets, pricing policy will have more muted effects. Use of mac-
ro-level instruments also assumes a willingness in government policy and
donor circles to develop a more coherent approach to addressing soil-fertility
management for improved livelihoods. Without such coherence, the incen-
tives faced by farmers are, in practice, merely the net result of decisions made
in a number of areas with no explicit account taken of their impact on soil
management.
As part of any consideration of phasing external support, it may be appropriate to
look at how such approaches may be combined at different points. It may, for
instance, be essential to address broader macro-policy issues before embarking on
a local-level approach, as without such an enabling context at higher level, local
initiatives may fail. Equally, it may be appropriate to aim for a top-down, technical
intervention (such as fertilizer supply) to address the immediate consequences of
short-term food insecurity and build towards a more long-term integrated and
participatory approach over some years.
Future Directions?
The approach outlined above contrasts in some important respects with the cur-
rent round of environmental strategies and conventions which are in the process of
preparation and implementation. These include the UN Convention to Combat
Desertification, the Soil-fertility Initiative and National Environment Action
Plans. One obvious problem raised by these environmental strategies is the degree
of overlap, duplication and waste involved in pursing often similar objectives but
through different structures, which actively compete with each other, both at
national and international level. A second issue concerns the very high cost of
preparing such global strategies in comparison with the funding available to imple-
ment what has been agreed. For example, it is reckoned that the cost of negotiating
the UN Convention to Combat Desertification must far exceed US$100 million