Cover_Rebuilding West Africas Food Potential

110 Rebuilding West Africa’s food potential

This strategy is even more difficult to understand given that world prices for this cereal show a constant

upward trend over the last three years. Similarly, the downward trend in production in China, which will

result in this country becoming a net importer, should stimulate a more proactive policy to promote rice

production in the Region.

B. Reforming the international trade regime

If we can concede to some analysts that the poor performance of the West African agricultural sector

is due to “States’ political and institutional deficiencies” we cannot ignore that it is largely the result of

the international market’s imperfections and failures. Shocks resulting from the international market’s

rules and operation are detrimental to the development of agriculture in general and to Africa’s sectors

in particular.

The trade regime is very unfavorable to African smallholder farmers who, due to a lack of support, face

competitors from developed countries on unequal grounds in their own market. Current negotiations

both at the WTO and the Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and ACP countries can

represent a huge opportunity to redefine the contours of the international market and loosen the noose

around African markets and ensure them a better space to maneuver.

However, these negotiations should lead to true liberalization of world trade: abolish all forms of

support, tariff and non-tariff barriers, dumping. This would provide a real opportunity for farmers in

West and Central Africa. This debate is even more crucial as the liberalization scheme – including the

one currently proposed by the EU in different regions of Africa through its offer to access the market

under the EPA – raises a few problems: issues linked to standards are not sufficiently taken into account.

However, ECOWAS should accelerate building the regional market, including implementing a customs

union and precautionary trade measures that are adaptable to a changing international market. The

agricultural policy’s road map gives clear indications in this area.

4.5 A sectoral approach to agricultural investments: case studies^7

A. The case of Benin

In Benin, the GIPD Project (Projet de Gestion Intégrée de la Production et des Déprédateurs) focused on

public policies implemented in support of the development of food value chains. Since independence,

Benin has relied on cotton for its economic growth whose production level had fallen because of low

prices. At one time cotton exports represented 40 percent of the nation’s export proceeds.

But since the collapse of cotton market, the country was forced to diversify its agricultural sector

so as to reduce the nation’s dependence on cotton. In pursuance of that objective, Benin adopted

its Strategy for the Re-launching of the Agricultural Sector, which focused on four agricultural

commodities, namely groundnut, pineapple, rice and poultry.

(^7) This section is taken from the proceedings of the joint regional FAO-IFAD workshop held in Accra, Ghana, July 4-5,
2012 under the theme: “Rebuilding the Potential of West African Agricultural Production: Lessons from Country
Studies, Policy Initiatives, and Private-Public Partnerships to Promote Smallholder-Inclusive and Competitive Food
Value Chains.”