Changing consumption patterns

West African patterns of food consumption are changing under the effect of the development of the market economy, the connection of rural and urban areas and urbanisation.

City dwellers increasingly value imported rice and wheat and they are diversifying their intake (particularly more fruit, vegetables and pulses) [1].

The advantage of imported cereals is mostly due to their regular availability on the market, in terms of both quality and quantity, due to the food security policies implemented by States and regional institutions in order to ensure regular supplies to cities at reasonable prices. But this attraction towards imported cereals also concerns rural areas and intermediate towns in the Sahel in the lean season. On the contrary, the irregularity of local product markets, exchange rate fluctuations and the vagaries of seasonal supplies depending on climatic conditions make investments in products of this type less attractive.

However, food crops have undergone a relative diversification: the development of the West African production of rice, corn, tubers, fruit and vegetables, meat and milk. This agricultural diversification, which is admittedly still limited, is largely based on family farming [2], which is also now turning to trade in processed products adapted to urban constraints: attieke and gari (manioc) have become veritable “national dishes” for urban dwellers in Côte d’Ivoire, Benin and Nigeria; in the Sudanese area yams have begun to compete with cotton crops due to the growth in urban demand [3].

The agri-food business is developing in the highest density urban-rural areas, especially in Nigeria. This agribusiness is based on large capitalistic farms, which maintain close connections with input supply chains. In some cases, small farms work on a contractual basis with industries (Mauritania’s milk production sector or tomatoes in Senegal). Companies doing large-scale manioc processing for animal feed and other industrial by-products are being set up in Ghana and Nigeria, creating a large market for producers.

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