Cover_Rebuilding West Africas Food Potential

420 Rebuilding West Africa’s food potential

are now defending the thesis of food security through self-sufficiency and dispute the limitations of the

comparative advantage theory. However, the usefulness of food transfers from most competitive to less

competitive areas is not questioned by these diverging voices. They simply argue in favour of mitigating

the extreme dependence of fragile states in relation to the outside world and reinforcing self-protection

mechanisms from exogenous shocks. Therefore, agriculture’s strategic purposefulness, often opposed to a

certain “economic rationality”, has been restored following this food crisis.

The above reasons validating the choice of national policymakers to support rice production are reinforced

by the following factors. The population of Mali is a sustainable solvent clientele, with a known and

constant price and income demand. The fact that domestic yields are not meeting an important part

of the demand at consumer level shows that focus should be given to improve productivity rather than

to marketing opportunities. According to the AFD (Baris et al., 2005), national requirements, which are

already well above domestic supply, have been growing at a robust rate of 7.5 percent per year since

1995, due to both demographic growth and changes in dietary habits. Figure 1 illustrates AFD projections

for new demands. The increment of the gap between local demand and availability creates constant

increases in rice imports: 300 000 tonnes or more were regularly imported since 2002 – six times less in

the preceding decade (Figure 2).

Figure 1. Estimated level of new requirements for rice in Mali (rice quantity in tonnes)

Source: AFD-CIRAD-FIDA (2011)

The current trend of increases in imports can partially be explained by the sharp decline in domestic rice

supply and the surge in demand.

0

20

(^)
2010 2015 20 2025
80 000 135 00 0 21 5000
40 000100 0002 145 00 0 10 000
25 000
70 000
20 000
50 000
335 00 0
5 00 0
25 000
Consumpon in Bamako
Urban consumpon
Rural consumpon outside producers
Household consumpon
10 000
30 000
100 00 0
200 00 0
300 00 0
400 00 0
500 00 0
600 00 0
700 00 0