Economy
Burkina Faso is not well-endowed with natural resources. Most of the population (more than 80%) is engaged in subsistence agriculture. The most significant agricultural products are cotton, peanuts, sorghum, millet, corn and rice. Burkina Faso has joined forces with Mali, Niger and Chad to pressure the World Trade Organisation to reduce subsidies to cotton farmers in the West. These subsidies make exporting Burkinabé cotton extremely difficult. The people of Burkina Faso have suffered from recent increases in the price of food, which will certainly affect the economy in years to come. The country always has difficulty exporting their crops due to frequent droughts and flooding as well as due to international subsidies. The country has an external debt of $1.33 million USD and large sums of interest must be paid each year to service it.
