Agricultural productivity and poverty of agricultural households in Burkina Faso

Reducing the number of people living below poverty or ensuring that those who are above the poverty line do not fall back into poverty is one of the priorities of those who are concerned about people's well-being. To achieve this, governments need a number of specific indicators to define the content of development aid policies. The objective of this article is to analyse the effects of agricultural productivity on poverty of agricultural households in Burkina Faso. To do this, a multidimensional analysis of poverty is adopted. Logistic regressions in randomised cylinder panels have highlighted the effects of agricultural productivity on poverty of agricultural households. The technical efficiency of farm households, particularly in cereal and groundnut crops, has a positive effect on the probability of getting out of the income poverty of farm households. This is not the case in cotton crops. On the basis of these results, any policy aiming at effectively reducing the poverty of agricultural households should, as a priority, reinforce the technical efficiency of cereals and groundnut farmers.