Agricultural production

In 1960, 85% of the population lived in rural areas centred around a self-subsistence economy with few connections to the marginal urban world. The rural economy, which was almost exclusively agricultural, generated half of the region’s GDP.

Over the last 50 years, cities have expanded and increased in number to become connected with each other and with rural areas. The rural sector’s working population, despite being more numerous, now plays a smaller part in the economy, particularly in favour of the informal urban sector [1], and accounts for 30% of the region’s GDP.

Although the rural economy is diversifying (agricultural product processing, mining, handicrafts, trade, transport and tourism), it is still dominated by agricultural activities, whose share in the income of the rural population will long remain preponderant [2].

Agriculture accounts for over half of the West African countries’ “agricultural GDP”, except in Mauritania, where the livestock farming sector predominates. The latter is the second largest contributor to “agricultural GDP” in the other countries, particularly in the Sahelian countries, where it represents 30 to 40% of this GDP.

Post-independence, agricultural policies focused on promoting the export sectors ensuring foreign exchange inflows (palm oil, coffee, cacao, cotton, groundnuts, etc.) that had been established during colonial rule. But food crops made the most progress, growing from 71% of agricultural production volume in 1960 to 78% in 2005. This boom concerns cereal crops (rice and corn), tubers and fruit and vegetable production, as well as the livestock and dairy sectors. This trend can be explained by high growth in urban demand, decreasing public investment in cash crops and international market price fluctuations.

An analysis of food production and consumption indices calculated in calories per capita per day and also in terms of imports shows that agriculture has succeeded to a large extent in coping with the high population growth. Food production per capita/day has remained stable over the past 25 years (at around 2,000 calories), while consumption has risen considerably over the last 15 years (from 2,200 to almost 2,500 cal/capita/day), stimulated by an increase in incomes, especially in urban areas. Consequently, food imports have risen to 16% of available regional stocks.