Hauts-Bassins Region
Hauts-Bassins Region's Bobo-Dioulasso hosts industrial capacity producing 600,000 tons cotton target 2024/25, 55% increase despite national security crisis.
Hauts-Bassins Region operates as Burkina Faso's economic capital, with Bobo-Dioulasso hosting industrial capacity that predates independence. The region's 2.2 million residents (11% of national population) produce the largest share of cotton—the country's primary agricultural export—while processing industries add value before shipment. This industrial tradition makes Hauts-Bassins unusual in a country otherwise dependent on raw commodity extraction.
Cotton cultivation expanded dramatically for 2024/25: targeted production of nearly 600,000 tons from 706,500 hectares represents a 55% increase over the previous year's harvest. Government subsidies (CFA 11 billion for inputs) and improved yields (827 kg/hectare) support this ambitious target. The Sikasso-Korhogo-Bobo-Dioulasso (SKBo) Special Economic Zone, planned with Mali and Côte d'Ivoire, aims to develop agro-industrial value chains, though poor transport infrastructure and climate vulnerability constrain progress.
Relative security enables economic function that other regions have lost. Bobo-Dioulasso remains accessible, businesses operate, and agricultural seasons proceed. Yet the region cannot escape national crisis effects: displaced populations arrive seeking safety; military operations elsewhere absorb government resources; January 2025 ECOWAS withdrawal complicates cross-border trade essential for exports. Whether Hauts-Bassins can maintain economic anchor function depends on preserving the security that makes production possible.