In central Benin, one of the country’s breadbaskets, several townships have borders with neighbouring countries. This geographical proximity has given rise to an influx of agricultural workers. Hard-working men and women from Togo  and other parts of the country converge to boost agricultural production and the townships’ economic reputation.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has noted that the movement of people is a key factor in agricultural development. In Benin, the agricultural workforce in the central-western townships, particularly Bantè, is made up of workers from the north of the country and neighbouring Togo.  Located in the north-west of the Collines Department, Bantè shares a border with the Republic of Togo to the west. The commune comprises 49 villages and town districts, divided into 09 subdivisions: Bobè, Gouka, Bantè, Koko, Pira, Agoua, Lougba, Atokolibé and Akpassi. 

On that morning in Pira, we met Jean-Pierre, originally from the Kara region of Togo. He had moved to Pira just a few years ago and is now a welcomed member of his host family. He had come to pay a visit to his host’s aunt when we came across him. She remarked: ‘He’s an outstanding farm worker; he’s part of our family. My nephew was in the field one morning, about five years ago, when he (Jean Pierre) approached him to offer his services’, she recounts.

His host explained that the arrival of Jean-Pierre, who had ‘surfaced’ from nowhere and with whom he had no connection whatsoever, a few months after the death of his father, was a sign of the latter’s return. According to their beliefs, the patriarch of the farm, whom his nephew kept asking to guide him to ensure his succession, in the face of the immensity of the challenges to be met, had answered his prayer.

So, without hesitation, the host, and the eldest son who was now in charge of the entire cashew plantation, welcomed Jean-Pierre with open arms. Since then, he has been his farmhand, helping him to maintain the plantation and grow food crops. Today, other than his services, Jean-Pierre has been allocated a portion of land to cultivate his own field. Through our discussion with Jean-Pierre, who had left his family in search of a better life, he makes no secret of his sense of relief. ‘I feel at home here,’ he sums up enthusiastically, pointing out the satisfactory progress of his maize production and his work on the cashew nut plantation.

A camp at about 3 kilometres from the village, on one of the field roads, is made up of people from northern Togo and northern Benin, who share similar languages and cultures. They have been living there for several years and are much in demand by the farmers. Over time, some of the farm’s residents have settled permanently, with their families, and now have their own fields and livestock. There are several camps like this one in the Bantè district.  

The host with whom the farm workers reside is their main source of contact and is given priority when it comes to requests for farm work. Sometimes they are called upon occasionally to provide services. As a way of obtaining higher yields, the main producers in the region rely on this – sometimes indispensable – workforce.

Replacement labour

Like many of Benin’s rural communes, Bantè is faced with the phenomenon of rural exodus and the migration of its able-bodied workers to neighbouring countries. “The Commune of Bantè has an enormous amount of arable land. Developing this arable land requires a large workforce.   Migration to our commune is a reality during the rainy season, as many of our young people migrate to Nigeria in search of a better life. So we use labour from neighbouring communes and countries in the sub-region”, explains Alphonse Odumbu, a local councillor and former Deputy Mayor of the commune of Bantè.

The commune’s geographical position and assets are attracting communities from neighbouring countries and elsewhere. 

According to the 2013 General Population Census (RGH4), communities from neighbouring countries make up 2.6% of the productive population of the commune of Bantè. These figures need to be updated, according to our sources.

Agriculture is the main occupation of the commune’s population, made up of 10,427 heads of agricultural households, 2,178 of whom are women.  More than 90% of the Commune’s working population earn their living from agriculture, which accounts for more than 75% of the primary sector. 

‘The types of activity in which non-Beninese communities are involved are the production of cereals: maize, sorghum and rice; tubers and roots: yams and cassava; pulses: cowpeas and soya, etc. These production activities take place during the rainy season,’ says the former Deputy Mayor,” says the former Deputy Mayor.

Impact on productivity and sub-regional integration

The Bantè commune is Benin’s leading cashew nut producer. The crop requires farm labour to maintain the plantations and harvest the nuts. The commune is one of the country’s breadbaskets, producing food crops and cash crops such as cashew nuts and cotton, as well as nascent production chains such as tomatoes.

According to the former Deputy Mayor, ‘If one is to consider the positive impact of the mobility of agricultural workers, there has indeed been an increase in agricultural production and productivity, and the availability of food products on the sub-regional markets’.

The mobility of farm workers in the Bantè district, in addition to providing a workforce, creates an interchange of agricultural practices between communities.In Benin, agriculture accounts for 37.1% of the GDP and employs 70% of the population. According to data from the Institut national de la statistique et de la démographie (INStaD), over 10% of immigrants prefer to settle in the departments of Collines (13.1%), Couffo (11.3%), Donga (12.2%) and the Littoral (10.5%).