Cover_Rebuilding West Africas Food Potential

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482 Rebuilding West Africa’s food potential


regionally-produced coarse grains with imported rice and wheat (Singare et al. 1999). At the same time,
a growing urban middle class creates additional demand for a diversified basket of higher value and
processed goods, with preferences for high-quality imported products (FARM 2008).

Income growth and distribution of purchasing power (including poverty patterns and income distribu-
tion) are also powerful drivers that shape the structure and evolution of food demand. In Mali, between
1990 and 2001, GDP grew by 4.4 percent on average (2.2 percent for GDP per capita) (World Bank
Development Indicators). According to estimates of poverty headcount ratios expressed in purchasing
power parities, more than half of the entire regional population in West Africa lives on less than US$1.25
per day and three-quarters have less than US$2.00 per day at their disposal. Poverty is relatively higher in
Sahelian countries such as Mali and Burkina Faso, but cotton areas generally exhibit lower rates.

Growing populations have contributed to a strong expansion of the regional market for food products.
The value of total regional consumption of food staples (including farmers’ own consumption) has been
estimated at US$20 billion, more than three times the value of West African international exports and
50 times the value of intraregional trade captured by official statistics (Hazell and Diao, 2005, cited in
ReSAKKS, 2008).

2.2 Consumption of sorghum and millet

Because of urbanization and increasing evidence on growing rural urban income disparities, most of this
market growth has taken place in urban areas. According to estimates from the international agricultural
research center for development (Centre International de Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement


  • CIRAD), almost all wheat, two-thirds of rice and more than 40 percent of roots and tubers available in the
    region are consumed in urban areas. Even in the case of typical rural staples such as millet and sorghum,
    approximately 20 percent is consumed in towns and cities. The total value of food transacted in the markets
    of eight West African capitals is considerably larger than the value of agricultural export revenues achieved by
    these countries. According to projected future demographic trends, the growth of the domestic food market
    will continue to take place mainly in urban areas. In addition, there will be growth in the demand for semi-
    industrial and industrial processed food and non-food products, which can stimulate the local agricultural
    sector if value-chain development effectively takes place.


The rapid rate of urbanization has driven demand in urban markets for imported food staples, and this has
fostered import dependency, while rural markets have continued to be served with domestic production such
as sorghum and millet. New marketing strategies could make local production more accessible to central
markets and meet the needs of urban consumers.

In Mali, food demand for cereals amounted to 2.6 million tonnes in 2008 (including maize, sorghum and
millet), in addition to a growing feed market demand for the poultry industry (around 50 000 tonnes of maize
per year).^2 There is a clear consumption substitution from millet-sorghum and maize toward rice and
wheat in Mali. The three main cereals (maize, sorghum and millet) represent 70 percent of consumers’
cereal needs. While the growing poultry sector is targeting maize, new marketing strategies for millet
and sorghum are also developing and would contribute to the growth of these crops value chains. Key
drivers supporting the development of sorghum and millet value chain include meeting consumers’
preferences and quality requirements.

(^2) Poultry being produced in modern industrial farms amounts to 1,5 million heads in Mali (most of which for
eggs), which calls for additional demand of 50,000 tons of processed maize (could be partially mixed with
processed sorghum).

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