Can pineapples thrive in Africa's Sahel? A Burkina Faso farmer says the
answer is yes
[September 01, 2026] By
ELIA BORRAS
BOBO-DIOULASSO, Burkina Faso (AP) — The soil beneath Oumarou Compaoré's
boots is sandy and stony. It’s hardly the lush setting usually needed to
support growing pineapples.
But this farm in landlocked Burkina Faso is part of national efforts to
reduce overall reliance on imports and adapt to an ever-harsher climate
in the dry heat of Africa’s Sahel region. Pineapples have long been seen
as exotic fruit grown by richer coastal neighbors, and more expensive
than the mangoes that grow outside many Burkinabe homes.
“People told us that here we could only grow cotton, maize or sorghum,”
Compaoré said at the farm he founded in 2018 outside the western city of
Bobo-Dioulasso, where he drives around in a van with an inscription that
reads, “Pioneer in pineapple production in the Sahel.”
His pineapple initiative, inspired in part by border closures during the
COVID-19 pandemic, is one of the more unusual projects challenging the
idea that people in Burkina Faso must rely on neighbors for much of what
they eat.
“Because the fruit was in short supply, we were able to sell it easily,”
said Compaoré, who also had been growing papayas with little profit. Now
his pineapple field has grown to about 50 hectares (124 acres).
The country's military leaders have taken note. Their economic growth
plan is tied heavily to agriculture. Pineapples are now part of the
government's formal development plan as it seeks to boost food
self-sufficiency for the country of 24 million people.
While there are no available government data on pineapple production,
farmers say more of them are venturing into it.
As of November, pineapple fields had expanded to around 100 hectares
(248 acres) in the administrative region that includes Compaoré's farm,
the regional director of agriculture, Adanabou Eric Pascal, told local
media at the time. Kola Jean, the agricultural engineer at Compaoré's
farm who helps to train others on pineapple farming, estimated that over
100 farmers are now getting into production.
Food production is called a sovereignty issue
Under Capt. Ibrahim Traoré, who took power after a coup in 2022, Burkina
Faso has presented food production as a sovereignty issue.
It suspended rice imports in April this year with a stated goal of
facilitating local production. It inaugurated two factories for tomato
paste, a local staple, in 2024.
And at a major supermarket in the capital, Ouagadougou, there is a
section dedicated to locally grown food — like shea butter, corn and
cassava flour and drinks like mango juice — labeled, “Let’s consume what
we produce."
All are steps toward shaking off the dependence on imports that for
decades has exposed millions of people to shifting transport costs and
other price shocks.
Hunger remains widespread. A decadelong security crisis that has left
jihadis in control of large swathes of territory has disrupted access to
farmland and markets. Many people have been displaced. U.N. agencies
have said some 2.7 million people face acute food insecurity during the
annual lean season when stocks from the previous harvest run low and
market prices peak.
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A pineapple grows on Djoda Farm in Matourkou, near Bobo-Dioulasso,
Burkina Faso, Thursday, May 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Elia Borras)
 Other farmers are being inspired
Mdme Kaba Séré, a pineapple farmer in Houet Province, said she used
to work in the nonprofit sector but switched to farming in 2023
following international aid cuts.
She recalled being told at a young age that pineapples cannot grow
in the Sahel, the dry strip of land south of the Sahara. Then she
was trained on pineapple cultivation by Compaoré.
“We saw what Oumarou was doing and thought: It is possible, why
not?” said Séré, who has expanded her farm to about 60,000
seedlings.
"With pineapple, there is profit,” she said. “It has impacted my
entire family because thanks to this I have been able to support
them.”
Because pineapples had long been seen as rare in Burkina Faso,
farmers say the business is lucrative because it's easy to find
buyers even before the fruit hits the market.
But hurdles include investments in everything from fertilizer to
irrigation and reliable transport.
Pineapples require a lengthy growing period of up to two years, plus
reliable access to water. Compaoré said he irrigates part of his
land from a well, but digging wells is an investment many farmers
cannot afford.
The climate can be problematic, too. Farmers are finding ways to
adapt, including by irrigating with cool water in the evening during
intense heat, said Pascal Bazongo, a professor of soil science and
natural resource management at Burkina Faso’s University of Fada
N’Gourma and an expert involved with Compaoré's farm.
Compaoré is upbeat about future innovations and better yields. On
recently acquired plots, about 30 workers moved through the field as
music played from a loudspeaker. Their goal that day, he said, was
to plant roughly 60,000 pineapple seedlings.
He expects the new fields to produce between 60 and 75 metric tons
(66-83 tons) of pineapples, with a projected revenue of about 35
million CFA francs, or roughly $62,000.
“We could even make the country self-sufficient in this fruit,” he
said.
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