Synthesis and recommendations XXXIX
Rice value chain – Improving the competitiveness and supply of local rice
and reducing dependence on imports
Among the major staple food commodities in West Africa, rice occupies a unique position. It is one of
the few food commodities for which consumption has risen significantly faster than production over
the past two decades, largely due to a very high rate of urbanization and low rice productivity growth,
making the region increasingly and unsustainably dependent on imports. The share of rice consumption
covered by domestic production has fallen from 70 percent in the mid-1990s to less than 30 percent
currently. Moreover, as imported rice began to dominate consumer markets in much of the region,
it became increasingly difficult for local rice to compete, which discouraged investment and further
eroded the incentives to produce and supply rice to the local market.
These trends became untenable and politically unacceptable following the food crisis of 2007-2008,
prompting the region’s governments to rethink their reliance on food imports and shift their food
security strategy towards self-sufficiency. However, such a shift requires a range of measures to raise
rice productivity, as well as removing market and institutional barriers, in order to enhance the supply of
local rice into the urban markets. The first responses were crisis-focused, relying mostly on fertilizer and
seed subsidies, which are known to have only a short-term, limited impact. What is required is the type
of incentive that can ensure a sustainable supply of rising surplus production into the urban markets
and ensure expansion of local rice market shares. These incentives would include facilitating collective
storage, improving rice quality and marketing, and enhancing coordination among value chain actors,
given the weak rice value chain linkages that currently exist among farmers, input suppliers and rice
millers.
A coherent rice development strategy must endeavour to erase the existing disincentives revealed in
the case of Mali through a study on expenditures and investments in agriculture by the Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and FAO. The study showed that, despite
heavy investments in rice (compared with other cereals), disincentives for rice production remained
because critical complementary measures were missing, including initiatives to strengthen producer
organizations, improve coordination among value chain actors, and harmonize import policies with
domestic production targets.
Similarly, in Senegal, a country that depends even more on imported rice than Mali, the post-food
crisis commitment to rice consisted of limited interventions with minimal, limited long-term impact
in terms of raising the share of local rice in the domestic market, despite the post-2008 boost to rice
production. Senegal’s response to the crisis consisted of supporting fertilizer and seed subsidies and
making substantial infrastructure investments in the River Valley region. However, the impact was minimal
because marketing is not well-organized and the volumes marketed are not large, despite a boost in yields
and unmet demand for the high quality rice produced. The lesson from these cases is that a coherent rice
development policy must complement the needed investments in order to raise productivity. Such a policy
must include measures aimed at strengthening producer organizations, improving coordination among
value chain players, and harmonizing rice import policy with domestic rice supply support.
Maize value chain – Harnessing the potential of a key feedstock for the region’s agro-
industry
Maize is grown in significant quantities over large areas in most countries of West Africa. Maize is
a subsistence crop that is being used increasingly as a cash crop. The potential demand growth for