Cover_Rebuilding West Africas Food Potential

Chapter 13. Rice in Mali: Policies for competitive and inclusive value chain development 427

Figure 8. Evolution of rice yields (tonne per hectare) in Mali

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015

Years

Source: FAO stat

However, agricultural intensification in paddy fields with high yields as seen in Ségou and Tombouctou,
have made significant strides with possibly smaller growth in the future. Improved farming techniques
have already been demonstrated with possibly slower push in the future. This leads us to propose to ex-
pand production by developing new agricultural land that would not only satisfy the growing demand for
rice, but also would respond positively to the many requests for land to cultivate rice.

Limitations of national production can largely be explained by relatively low yields, which characterize
production systems other than the irrigated one. Land allocation is primarily made for the benefit of
controlled flooding rice production, as shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9. Allocation of rice land according to production methods

18%

12%

45%

25%

Rainfed rice

Natural flooding rice

Controlled flooding rice

Other rice producon

Source: National Agricultural Directorate, 2009

Production, which is a variable explained through yields, thus through production methods, has a rela-
tively slow evolution compared to needs. Figure 2, which illustrates this, also shows how production
began to increase at the end of the 2000s especially in 2008. This reflects the efforts of the government
to give a boost to the rice sector in the aftermath of the global food crisis.