Cover_Rebuilding West Africas Food Potential

20 Rebuilding West Africa’s food potential

Figure 13. Nigeria’s share of staple crop production in West Africa (MT)

Source: FAOSTAT (2012)

In terms of production patterns, staple food production, on aggregate, has increased more slowly during

the 1990s but the pace has picked up since 2000. The trends are general across staple crops and for many

countries of the region. Maize, rice, and cassava production have exhibited the highest per annum growth

rates (by a factor of between 2 and 2.7) while sorghum and millet have increased more modestly (by a

factor of 1.5)^5 The growth of production has been based on bringing more land into production, with some

increase in labour and land productivity as well. However, these modest productivity increases are way below

the levels required to ensure better food security and reduced trade deficits. Further productivity increase is

highly likely since the yields of most crops are currently rather low compared with yields in other African and

developing countries.

a) Cereal production in WA

Cereal production trends by crop are reported in Figures 14A to 14D.

(^5) Production growth has also been significant for other roots and tubers, such as potatoes which have been multi-
plied by 10 times since the 1980s (AFD-CIRAD-IFAD 2011).

0,010,020,030,040,050,060,070,0

1990

2000

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1990

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Maiz

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iceM

ille

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assava

Nigeria Rest of WA (+Cameroon)