Chapter 3. Analytical review of national investment strategies and agricultural policies in West Africa 87
b. Heightening the regional integration process, leading to harmonizing sectoral policies (adoption
of the Common Agricultural Policy of the Union, the Agricultural Policy of WAEMU in 2001 and
ECOWAP / CAADP of ECOWAS in 2005). All these policies have strengthened numerous agricultural
development strategies developed and started by intergovernmental organizations such as the
Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel and the organizations responsible
for the management of large river basins (Liptako Gourma, the Organization for the Development of
the Senegal River, the Niger Basin Authority, the Lake Chad Basin Commission, etc.).
The agricultural policy of ECOWAS, ECOWAP / CAADP strongly emphasizes the development of family
farms. Its vision states “agricultural policy is designed to meet the objectives of a modern and
sustainable agriculture, based on the effectiveness and efficiency of family farms and the
promotion of agricultural enterprises through private sector involvement. While being productive and
competitive in the intra-Community market and international markets, it must ensure food security and
provide a decent income to its working population”.
In its operational phase, the ECOWAS’s agricultural policy has a regional agricultural investment plan
incorporating policy instruments whose goal, in essence, is to help boost regional agricultural production,
regulate the functioning of the market and provide better access to food for vulnerable populations.
These instruments, accompanied by an operational structure and financing mechanisms, are supposed to
address bottlenecks faced by small farmers effectively. They entail production incentives, market regulation
and vulnerability management to improve vulnerable groups’ access to food.
In support of this policy’s implementation, national investment programs and a regional agricultural
investment program have been developed and adopted by mutual agreement with all the technical and
financial partners and socio-professional organizations. The Regional Investment Program has three main
objectives: i) promoting strategic products for food sovereignty and security (maize, rice, cassava, livestock
and livestock products), ii) promoting a favorable environment for regional agricultural development, and
iii) reducing vulnerability and promoting sustainable access to food for the population at large.
WAEMU’s agricultural policy, PAU, promotes a number of agricultural sectors: rice, corn, livestock and
livestock products, oilseeds and cotton. PAU aims not only to develop a number of incentives such as
small-scale irrigation and crop insurance, but also proposes to set up cooperation frameworks for the
selected sectors.
The fundamental question is whether these policies and policy instruments are able to “promote positive
development of sectors favoring small farmers. Are these policies able to help restructuring professional
agricultural organizations in order to promote synergies between their initiatives and the private sector to
overcome some of the endemic constraints faced by small farmers such as supply of inputs and access to
markets?”
1.1 Survey questions
Several specific questions form the basis of this study:
a. “What actions, initiatives and mechanisms are put in place by policy makers for better economic
restructuring of cooperatives and CIGs specializing in food crop sectors (cereals, roots and tubers)?
b. What initiatives have been fostered by agricultural policies that strengthen public-private partnerships
to facilitate access to credit for producers and processors at the cooperative level and above?