Chapter 3. Analytical review of national investment strategies and agricultural policies in West Africa 85
- Introduction
Agriculture is one of the fundamental sectors for the economy of West African states. It accounts for about
35 percent of the Regional Gross Domestic Product and for 15 percent of export earnings; this can reach
30 percent if we exclude Nigeria. In some countries such as Guinea Bissau, agriculture contributes over 60
percent of national wealth creation (GDP and export earnings included). Some countries’ economic sound-
ness depends on the strength of their agricultural sector. This is the case for Côte d’Ivoire, which alone
contributes about 53 percent of export earnings creation from agricultural products of the Region.
The main source of employment in the West African Region is agriculture. In fact, over 65 percent of
the population works in the agricultural sector. More than half of them are women and more than
two-thirds are young people. They operate mainly in family farms with an average plot size of around
one and a half hectares. These farms provide more than 80 percent of the food needs of the Region.
However, the West African agricultural sector remains highly vulnerable to internal and external shocks.
Internal shocks comprise the effects of climatic hazards (drought, floods), poor water management,
attacks from predators, inadequate or absent technical, economic and financial services for small
family farms. These recurring problems are exacerbated by the inadequacy or incompleteness and
failures of public policy.
External shocks are mainly due to the destabilizing effects of agricultural policies in the North, including
grants and other support to agriculture and dumping practices. Other factors such as those related to
international trade rules, including the fact that the Agreement on Agriculture is quite averse to small
farms, should also be taken into consideration. Indeed, as pointed out by Jadot, 1998, “The Agreement
on Agriculture, in its essence, is much more “favorable to intensive farming of the developed countries”,
than to smallholders and extensive farming in developing countries. Despite including a special and
differential treatment, the Agreement on Agriculture is basically an update of the “Blair House” one
reached between the United States and Europe. It considers “agricultural policies within a framework
of sectors strongly influenced by liberal thought. Thus, agricultural policy tools are understood in terms
of their more or less negative impacts on international trade rather than in terms of the objectives they
seek to achieve (food security, rural employment, land use planning)” (Solagral, 2011).^2
This largely explains the current characteristics of the West African regional agricultural sector, marked
by one of the lowest levels of human productivity in the world. Certain crop yields are in certain cases
ten times lower than those in Northern countries. Production growth is a result of the expansion of
cultivated areas rather than yield increases. Over the last 20 to 25 years, the general trend in production
growth is due to an increase in area while yields are almost constant (except for a few cases, such as
rice in the Office du Niger). In the case of cereals, the increase in production is due to the doubling
of acreage, while yields only rose by 14 percent (FARM, 2008). For tubers, between 1980 and 2000,
production volumes were multiplied by seven while area expansion multiplied by nine.
Inter-annual production variations can be considerable and happen in a context marked by weak or
inadequate storage and conservation facilities. This results in essential characteristics that are the
mark by West African agriculture: the strong variation and volatility of commodity prices in general
and food products in particular.
(^2) Solagral, 2001, Libéralisation commerciale et sécurité alimentaire, working paper, 5 pages