Seven years ago, when Adama Patrick Sombié received two hectares of land in Bérégadougou, the outlook was bleak. There were no cashew orchards, no processing plants buzzing with activity, and few reliable income opportunities for local families. The land was largely a degraded forest, with wild and scattered trees.

Today, however, Sombié runs a modern processing unit outfitted with six automated shelling machines, each one doing the work of what once required 25 manual tables. This dramatic transformation is the result of a larger cashew boom sweeping through Burkina Faso, where farming is proving to be a valuable tool for lifting individuals and households from poverty.

Yet, this remarkable progress is happening despite the country grappling with one of the worst security crises in the Sahel. While cashew farmers are celebrating higher yields and improved incomes, extremist violence continues to displace communities. According to United Nations data, over two million people have been internally displaced amid mounting conflict. At the same time, thousands have died since 2019, as the country’s economic gains remain under the shadow of pervasive insecurity.

How Cashews Transformed Rural Economies

The cashew tree was first introduced in Burkina Faso during the 1960s as part of a soil-conservation strategy, but for decades it remained a secondary crop. That changed sharply in the early 2000s, when global demand for cashews surged and West Africa became a major global supplier. Seeking to unlock this potential, Burkina Faso launched the Cashew Development Support Project (PADA/REDD+) in 2017 with funding from the African Development Bank (AfDB).

The project focused on the Cascades, Hauts-Bassins, and South-West regions, home to nearly all of the country’s raw cashew production. The project aimed to boost the sector through climate-smart initiatives, like creating agroforestry plantations, and by strengthening the value chain through improved access to finance and processing modernization.  Through a blend of environmental restoration and market development, PADA/REDD+ established new orchards, introduced agroforestry systems, and distributed approximately 1.6 million improved seedlings to farmers. Notably, about one-third of the newly planted areas are managed by women,  a deliberate effort to bolster gender equity in land use and agribusiness.

To raise productivity, the project trained roughly 35,340 farmers, including more than 6,000 women, in sustainable techniques, including soil regeneration, organic fertilization, contour farming, and water-efficient methods. These practices helped reduce production costs, improve soil fertility, and increase farmers’ resilience to drought. “Thanks to the project,” Christiane Koné, a processor in Toussiana states, “we have been able to purchase six automatic shelling machines, which are twice as fast as our 25 manual shelling tables.”

Women, Environment, and Cooperative Growth

Cashew processing has become a vital engine for women’s economic empowerment in Burkina Faso. According to the AfDB report, about 9,580 “green” jobs were created under PADA/REDD+, and around 92% of them went to women. To remove financial barriers, the project partnered with community credit unions called “Caisses populaires” to issue low-interest loans, enabling women to buy equipment, build or expand processing units, and formalize their cooperatives.

This support set the pace for a wave of infrastructure growth. In Toussiana, the Tensya processing center was built from scratch. Three storage warehouses followed — one of which is exclusively managed by women’s cooperatives. In Diéri, a women-only cooking and shelling center now provides a space for early-stage value addition in a safe, organized environment.

Transport was also a key bottleneck, and PADA/REDD+ moved swiftly: it financed 12 trucks and 45 tricycles to help cooperatives and small traders transport raw nuts from rural areas to processing hubs. Isso Kindo, a trader in Bobo-Dioulasso, recalled how the new truck lets her carry up to 60 tonnes of raw nuts from villages like Banfora and Mangodara,  a game-changer for her business.

Meanwhile, cooperative governance also grew. 96 cooperatives were formally registered under the OHADA legal framework, granting them legal recognition and expanding their capacity to access credit. With this increased organization, producer groups’ bargaining power improved, and what was once a fragmented chain began to converge. At the national level, this organizing paid off: cashew has become Burkina Faso’s third-largest agricultural export, after cotton and sesame. According to data aggregators, production reached roughly 145,000 tonnes in 2022, a milestone that underscores how far the sector has come.

PADA/REDD+ was not only about economics; it was also rooted in restoring the environment. Burkina Faso suffers from persistent land degradation and recurring droughts. In response, the project introduced climate-smart farming techniques, such as cashew-based agroforestry systems that incorporate native trees, mulching, and contour-ploughing to reduce erosion, and organic fertilizers to replenish depleted soils.

Farmers also received training on water conservation, helping them capture and store seasonal rainfall more effectively. More than 35,000 farmers adopted these strategies, generating dual benefits for their landscapes and their livelihoods. Cashew trees are especially suited to this approach: their deep roots make them drought-tolerant, and they help sequester carbon, offering a potential pathway into future carbon-credit markets.

Yet this environmental resilience depends on a basic condition: that farmers can safely get to their orchards. With violence spreading across rural areas, even the most climate-resilient farms are under threat if people are too afraid to tend their land.

A Prosperous Sector in an Unstable Nation

According to ACLED, between January and September 2024, nearly 2,000 civilians were killed in the country, with analyses attributing roughly 80% of those deaths to the al-Qaeda-linked JNIM group. Meanwhile, UNHCR data shows that more than two million people have been internally displaced,  one of the fastest-growing displacement crises in the world.

Historically, Burkina Faso’s cashew-producing southwest was considered relatively safe. But that perception is shifting as violence creeps closer. The Barsalogho massacre of August 24, 2024, is perhaps the starkest symbol: estimates of the death toll vary, Human Rights Watch documented at least 133 civilian deaths, while other eyewitness accounts and media reports claim several hundred; the precise number remains contested.

Political upheaval has only added to the uncertainty. Two coups in 2022 brought Captain Ibrahim Traoré to power. Under his leadership, Burkina Faso withdrew from ECOWAS, strengthened ties with Russia, and witnessed the exit of many Western counterterrorism forces. Civil society voices have raised concerns about shrinking civic space and limited access for humanitarian agencies. Indeed, the UN Resident Coordinator was declared persona non grata after raising human rights issues, a move documented by international media.

Insecurity is undermining the cashew value chain. Once reliable transport routes are now less secure, forcing traders to detour or avoid movement altogether. Farmers are increasingly hesitant to travel to their orchards, and some have even temporarily abandoned their plantations. These disruptions come at the worst time: the harvest season. When processing centers shut down or operate at reduced capacity, profit margins shrink, and the gains built over the years start to erode.

Gains and the Road Ahead

Despite the growing threats, PADA/REDD+ continues to be held up by the African Development Bank and development practitioners as a model for integrated rural development in high-risk areas. Yet, those successes now seem to stand on shaky ground.  Projections from the World Food Programme (WFP) suggest that millions of Burkinabés may face acute hunger in the coming season as violence restricts access to farmland and hampers aid delivery. WFP Country Director Elvira Pruscini has warned that to avoid catastrophe, it is not enough to deliver food; Burkina Faso must confront deeper structural issues, including security and displacement, if it hopes to restore stability.

The success of Burkina Faso’s cashew program is already spreading across West Africa. Countries like Côte d’Ivoire and Benin have ramped up their agroforestry and women-led processing efforts. Ghana has adopted its seedling distribution and climate-smart farming methods.

But the country’s ongoing crisis is a reminder that development is only as strong as the security it rests on. The cashew miracle remains a powerful story of resilience and rural ingenuity. Yet for this miracle to last, experts insist, depends on the ability of the junta government to secure peace and protect communities.