Annual Report

2024-2025

Annual Report

2024-2025

Burkina Faso

Even before the creation of UPA Développement international (UPA DI) in 1993, visits and exchanges were carried out in Burkina Faso by Quebec agricultural leaders.

Project

Corn Processing Center

Corn Processing Center

Development of Family Farming in the Boucle du Mouhoun

Since 2018, the Fonds d’investissement solidaire international du Québec (FISIQ) (Quebec International Solidarity Investment Fund) has been providing professional agricultural organisations in the Global South with loans on fair and equitable terms to support social economy initiatives.

This year, with the support of UPA Développement international (UPA DI) and volunteers from the Agro-Innov Network, the Union des sociétés coopératives pour la commercialisation des produits agricoles dans la Boucle du Mouhoun (USCCPA/BM) (Union of Cooperative Societies for the Marketing of Agricultural Products in the Boucle du Mouhoun) secured a $500,000 loan to build a corn processing center in the city of Dédougou.

The USCCPA/BM brings together 15 cooperatives with more than 3,100 members, including 665 women and 530 young people. It provides agricultural supply services and supports collective marketing for surplus cereal, oilseedsand hibiscus flowers (used to prepare bissap). Services offered also include training, technical assistance, and access to markets.

The construction of this center will facilitate the processing and marketing of corn produced by members. This initiative 's income will be secured by a team composed mainly of women and young people who will be responsible for marketing and finding new buyers.

Processing activities began in the Summer of 2025 with the first sales anticipated in the fall.

Congratulations to the USCCPA/BM on this ambitious initiative and best wishes for continued success!

Martin Caron

President of the Board

The future of agriculture, here and around the world, depends greatly on the decisions we make and the actions we take today. Hence the expression, “The future starts now.”

This projection into the future calls for deep reflection. Are the necessary resources available? Is the sustainability of family farming assured? Are collective marketing systems alive and well? Are structural initiatives continuing to emerge? Does the next generation of farmers have confidence in the future?

Each of these questions is relevant and deserves careful consideration. If the answer to most of them is yes, we must continue along the same path. If the answer is no, we must act, innovate, unite, and collectively change the course of events —preferably sooner rather than later.

This concern for the future is central to the mission of UPA Développement international (UPA DI), which, since 1993, has drawn on Quebec's agricultural values to support the development of a large number of rural communities around the world. To do this, we pilot environmentally friendly projects that are transferable to future generations and designed to enhance food security and autonomy for populations.

Our local farmers can take pride in all these projects, as well as in the many forms of representation that UPA DI provides to numerous international organizations. Reading this annual report will surely convince you!

Hugo Beauregard-Langelier

Chief Executive Director

While many are content to believe that the future will be the same as the past or trying to revive an idealized version of the past, others are forging ahead, dreaming of a future they are building. For them, the future is not something that simply happens to us, but something shaped by the actions we take.

These dreams to be built and actions to be taken, have been central in the past year at UPA Développement international (UPA DI). All this leading to the adoption of a new strategic plan, an opportunity to reflect on the mark UPA DI seeks to leave in the evolving landscape of agriculture and international solidarity.

Rooted in its history, engaged in the present, and ambitious towards the future, UPA DI's vision is for those who feed the world and inhabit our agricultural lands to live with dignity from the fruit of their labour. This vision is built on ecological economic growth, strong collective action, and the socio-economic empowerment of women.

But the realization of these aspirations will inevitably depend on young people, the next generation, who will live in a time where the potential for technological and social innovation has never been greater, yet crises have never been more frequent or severe.

If, as they say, history repeats itself, we must trust these young people who will feed us tomorrow to rise to the challenges they will face, just as our ancestors did before us. And if history repeats itself, UPA DI will be by their side to dream, innovate, and build a future driven by collective action, solidarity, equity, social justice, respect, and democracy.

Happy reading!