The 'Children of the Rice' live in the wettest region of
Burkina Faso in the Vallée du Kou close to the border with Mali. Along the River Kou,
1300 hectares of the broad valley bottom have been turned into rice fields. Small-holdings
have been allocated to local families and to poor farmers who have migrated from the
dry-lands of the Sahel in the North of the country.
Each of the families has one hectare, broken up into small paddyfields by a grid of
earth dykes. Families either take turns to use the mechanical cultivator or plough with
oxen. The rice-planting scheme has been running since the early 1970s and is supported by
the Chinese and Burkina Faso governments.
"Our parents came here 28 years ago, when the scheme started," explains
Ramata Ouédraogo, aged 24. "We were born here, and everything we know is rice.
We’re called moui kamba - the children of the rice. We have students at grammar
school and university but most of the children aren’t interested in school.
"The water is always there, throughout the year. We control it, starting and
stopping it when we need to. The water’s always there for us. We work every day on
the rice, except on Sunday. We’re friends and we work together. The work is hard;
there’s no difficulty in sleeping after a day in the rice fields. We sell part of our
crop and keep part for ourselves."
