Cover_Rebuilding West Africas Food Potential

XL Rebuilding West Africa’s food potential

maize is substantial, given its multiple market applications, especially under unrestricted regional trade.

Given the low average level of fertilizer use and the limited seed distribution network, there is a large

potential for productivity increase in maize. Along the value chain, maize faces great variability in price,

quality and quantity, as a result of deficient market information systems, transport and infrastructure

impediments and weak enforcement of legal rules and business contracts.

Addressing both the maize productivity gap and the market constraints requires coherent price and

investment strategies that combine both market and institutional reforms. The following is a list of

priority actions that can be undertaken (with varying levels of priority, depending on the country and

on local market and structural conditions):

(i) Support innovative credit access schemes, including public-private partnerships and warrantage, to

facilitate producers gaining sustainable access to fertilizer, seeds and quality-enhancing techniques;

(ii) Establish technology-assisted price and market information systems generated and used by value

chain actors (e.g. the maize interprofession) under public-private initiatives;

(iii) Offer subsidized investments in storage facilities to eligible producer organizations and cooperatives;

(iv) Provide subsidized investments in small- and medium-scale upgrades of agriprocessing or milling

units to enhance processing capacity and improve quality standards;

(v) Offer publicly-funded, privately-provided and needs-based training programmes for leaders and

members of eligible market-oriented producer organizations;

(vi) Establish legal frameworks for enforcing commercial transactions and ensuring adherence to safety

and quality standards and regulations;

(vii) Establish the institutional frameworks for the creation of producer organizations, cooperatives, business

networks and interprofessions to enhance value chain coordination and strengthen the linkages; and

(viii) Support multi-stakeholder meetings to exchange information on the maize value chain, develop

partnership opportunities (such as public-private partnerships) and debate policies and initiatives

related to the maize sector.

Sorghum-Millet value chains – Ending policy neglect so as to enhance food security,

foster agriprocessing, and promote market penetration for sorghum and millet

Sorghum and millet are two of the most critically important food security crops in the Sahel (the 15

countries comprising the CILSS (Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel)

group stretching from Senegal to Chad). Their adaptability to light soils and lower rainfall make them

highly suitable for cultivation where other crops are not feasible. Over 50 percent of the Sahel population

depends on sorghum and millet as the primary food source. Yet, owing to policy neglect (much of it

due to bias towards commodities for exports or for domestic urban markets) and the resulting lack of

incentives, these crops are typically grown with little or no input and produce low yields, an outcome

compounded by lower-fertility soils. Consequently, these crops remain largely subsistence crops offering

limited surplus to market and lower market penetration compared to maize or rice. As a result, sorghum

and millet value chains remain underdeveloped, with little processing apart from small-scale milling.

The potential contribution of these crops to food security is substantially larger than what currently exists.

The average yield for sorghum/millet throughout the region is around half a tonne per hectare and could be

easily doubled or tripled with existing technologies (improved varieties and fertilizer management techniques

developed over the years by the INTSORMIL project and field-tested by the Sasakawa 2000 project).

Within the Sahel countries, the lack of policy incentives and the absence of a serious development

strategy for these otherwise strategic food security crops are not surprising but this urgently needs