Chapter 1. West Africa staple food systems: An overview of trends and indicators of demand, supply, and trade 9
Figure 3 below summarizes the shares of three types of uses (food, feed and industrial processing) for
maize, cassava and millet for the top six producers in West Africa.
Figure 3. Staple crop utilization shares (in %) by top producers (2009)
Source: FAOSTAT (2012)
Maize
Looking at maize utilization by country in the region, we observe growth in maize feed use, though
with a high degree of variability across countries and areas. In Benin, maize feed use represents two-
thirds of national supplies, up from less than 8 percent in the early 1990s. Burkina Faso has a low
maize processing capacity, given that 92 percent of national supply is used directly as food. For Mali
and Cameroon, the maize food share has declined from 80 percent to 55 percent over the same period.
It has remained at around 70 percent in Togo, 65 percent in Côte d’Ivoire and around 55 percent in
Nigeria over the last two decades. Ghana has exhibited a significant increase in maize feed use, from 40
percent in 1990 to 55 percent recently. However, processed products continue to represent a marginal
share for maize, although this has actually decreased.
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Benin
Cameroon
Côte d'Ivoire
Ghana
Guinea
Nigeria
Total WA
Benin
Burkina Faso
Cameroon
Ghana
Mali
Nigeria
Total WA
Burkina Faso
Chad
Mali
Niger
Senegal
Nigeria
Total WA
Cassav
aM
aize
Millet
Food Feed Other u lisa on