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Accueil > Land > Rural Areas and Agricultural Changes > To prepare for the future

To prepare for the future

Rural development policies cannot look to the past, for over the last 45 years, West Africa’s rural landscape has witnessed deep-seated changes.

The growing population and urbanisation have turned West Africa into a regional market. Rural and urban areas, local and national levels are closely interlinked and interdependent ; they have jointly entered the competitive era.

This new era seems promising, though risk-laden, in particular because the weakest rural groups (those living in marginal zones) are subject to the market’s disadvantages without benefiting from its advantages. As was the case in other parts of the world at different times, the shift from a traditional agrarian economy to urbanisation and the market economy involved an increased consumption of the agricultural space and non-renewable natural resources (timber).

These changes may seem powerful and rapid, but there is no doubt that they will be even more so in the next 20 years. In 2020, the urban population is likely to represent more than 50% of the total population. A city with 100,000 inhabitants in 2006 will have 160,000 in 2025 solely through its natural growth, and probably 180,000 with rural entrants. Land will be perceived as a capital asset by a growing number of farms (perhaps more environmentally-friendly practices will emerge ?). A larger proportion of farms than today will be well connected to the market and will profit from it. Farmers in marginal zones will continue to suffer from the vagaries of the climate and the market, and perhaps even more so from the impact of climate change.

Far more than in the past or even today, “agriculture” will not be the sole activity in rural areas, although it will remain the driving force. Furthermore, rural and urban areas are closely linked and their relations will become even more intense. Any development policy or strategy must take this into account.