XXVIII Rebuilding West Africa’s food potential
food production. Competitive agrifood value chains must rely on solid demand, supportive industries,
quality inputs and firm rivalry; agrifood chains also require an enabling legal and policy environment
and coordination among value chain actors.It is essential to develop inclusive value chains in order to achieve stronger agricultural growth and
improve the livelihoods of the rural poor. Given the myriad constraints facing small-scale farmers,
greater effort must be deployed to ensure that markets are more inclusive of small-scale producers –
including women, who play a significant role in staple food value chains. Women face additional
constraints in accessing resources (land, credit, technology, training, extension) and therefore require
gender-targeted interventions. As an illustration, much of the rice produced in Burkina Faso is parboiled
by women, who play a central role in the potential development of the rice value chain; however,
women face a huge set of constraints (in access to credit, training, organization and capacity), which
prevents them from playing a far more dynamic role in turning rice into a thriving agro-industry.Clearly, policy support is crucial to induce the required value chain transformation in West Africa.
Equally important is an understanding of the role of the key players essential for such transformation –
the public sector, private agro-industry, the finance sector, and the producers and their organizations.
Understanding the respective roles of each of these players is an essential part of formulating the
required market and institutional reforms and delineating the right policy environment.- Getting policies right: priorities for the transformation
of the staple food chains in West Africa
The essential players in agrifood value chains can be grouped into four broad categories (or market
agencies): (i) public agencies; (ii) agro-industry (input suppliers, processors); (iii) financial institutions;
and (iv) producers and their organizations. Each of these players plays a critical and well-defined role
within the agrifood system.The role of the public sector is to provide the catalytic interventions required to create the enabling
environment and the right policy setting. However, the full development of staple food value chains rests
primarily on the private agribusiness players, including those of small- and medium-scale, who contribute to
market creation, innovation and enhancement of quality standards. A dynamic agro-industry also depends
on well-functioning credit institutions that forge commercial partnerships with processors, input suppliers and
producers, contributing to funding as well as financial training and capacity building. Finally, no value chain
can thrive without the producers and their organizations – the necessary market agency that can contribute
to more dynamic and inclusive value chain development.The public sector supports the food value chain development by setting the overall policy environment
guided by broad strategic objectives – namely, food security, poverty reduction and growth. The public
sector aims to create the enabling environment for business (security, legal frameworks, infrastructure,
research and development), and to support smallholder-inclusive market participation. In the context
of food value chain transformation, the priorities for policy support include the following: (i) fostering
private input markets and providing incentives for their uptake by farmers; (ii) supporting dissemination
and transfer of information, including market signals to stimulate exchange and to improve quality and
value; (iii) increasing high-impact investments targeting the development and transfer of technologies,