Kouffo Department

Kouffo Department emerged from Mono's 1999 division, creating Benin's most rural department with 72% of population living outside urban areas. The capital Aplahoué sits at the center of an agricultural economy dominated by palm oil production, maize, and cassava. This rurality creates distinct development challenges: services concentrate in distant urban centers while Kouffo's dispersed villages lack infrastructure.

Palm oil represents both traditional livelihood and modern opportunity. Traditional processing of Elaeis guineensis fruits produces two product streams—standard palm oil and premium 'zomi' (flavored quality oil)—using purely artisanal methods. These cottage industries employ women throughout the department, though yields remain low by industrial standards. The question is whether to modernize production (increasing efficiency but displacing traditional processors) or preserve artisanal methods (maintaining employment but limiting scale).

Kouffo's border with Togo creates cross-border economic flows that official statistics undercount. Informal trade—agricultural products moving west, manufactured goods flowing east—provides income for border communities while complicating economic planning. The department performs well in goat and sheep production, diversifying beyond cattle-dominant northern pastoralism. This small-ruminant specialization suits the more densely settled south, where livestock must fit into farming systems rather than dominating landscapes.