4 Rebuilding West Africa’s food potential
reviews the demand drivers affecting current and future food demand in West Africa, especially the critical
roles of population growth and rapid urbanization of the region. The section also succinctly reviews broad
highlights of staple food utilization, consumption patterns and overall demand. Section 3 reviews food
supply drivers and summarizes some of the key productivity indicators, such as yield, land use and soil
fertility. Section 4 addresses food trade, which fills the gaps between demand and supply. This section
distinguishes between formal trade flows and the informal trans-border trade within West Africa, which
is very important and has only recently begun to be documented. Section 5 reviews a number of salient
issues specific to some of the major staple food value chains in the region, providing an introductory
preview of the more detailed treatments in the case studies that appear later in this volume.- West Africa’s staple food situation: A review of demand drivers
2.1 Population and urbanisation trendsSince 1960, when most West African countries were gaining independence, the total population of
the region (including Cameroon and Chad) was just over 90 million but in the course of 50 years the
population nearly quadrupled, reaching 342 million by 2011 (see Figure 1). Such huge population
growth has had a fundamental impact on the economic position of the region and on the demand on
its resources, including food.Figure 1. Population growth in millions for West Africa (plus Cameroon and Chad)Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators (2012)Parallel to the population growth, a second phenomenon, equally significant, was the substantial shift of the
population from predominately rural to urban (see Figure 2 below). Huge migration to the cities produced a0,0
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