Agriculture as key for regional integration and to tackle food
insecurity in West Africa
Abstract
Agriculture is a major sector for West African economies. It is under-developed and is mostly
rain-fed and therefore is exposed to climate fluctuations. The countries have committed
themselves within the frame of CAAPD/ECOWAP to reach certain goals regarding the
agricultural sector and to tackle food insecurity. Even, with CAADP/ECOWAP the food
security situation remained alarming compared to the rest of the developing world. It is
amazing that they have natural potentialities regarding improving agricultural production but
the situation is still difficult. Thus, the countries have to review the implementation of the
policies toward a very strong cooperation at regional level. Cooperating at regional level will
enable them to achieve food self-sufficiency in the main foods and to do not rely mainly on
food importations to feed the population.
Key words: Agriculture, regional integration, climate change, food security, food selfsufficiency, under-nourishment
Introduction
Climate change constitutes currently a serious problem for the world. As the planet warms,
rainfall patterns shift and extreme events such as droughts, floods, and forest fires become
more frequent (World Bank, 2010). Thus, the agricultural production becomes uncertain and
unpredictable, especially the one that relies mostly on rainfall. According to IPCC (WG2,
2007), warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of
increases in global average air and ocean temperature, widespread melting of snow and ice
and rising global average sea level.
West Africa is considered one of the regions to be most affected by climate change (CalloConcha et al., 2012). According to these authors land degradation, increasing discrepancy
between water demand supply and as a consequence, declining agricultural productivity, and
subsequent changes in livelihoods are expected to occur in the rural areas. In general, the
West African climate is governed by the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ)
determined by the African monsoon1 (GEF-UNEP, 2002 in Callo-Concha et al., 2012) that
produces two annual air masses oscillations: (a) the “monsoon” from south (equatorial
Atlantic) to north (Sahara desert) causing moist conditions in the north through an unimodal
rainy season between May and October reaching its maximum in July and August, and (b) the
“northeast trade” wind from north to south occurring between October and April, a cold and
dusty wind bringing rainfall to the south and leaving the north dry and hot; the influence of
this period is known as Harmattan (Badini et al. 1997, Ouedraogo, 2004; Kpongor 2007;
Kanchebe, 2010; in Callo-Concha et al., 2012).
Agriculture is major sector for most Sub-Saharan countries. It contributed to 35% of the
region’s GDP, up to 60% employment, and income generation (ECOWAS, 2009). Moreover,
agricultural exports occupy a preeminent place in the West Africa’s external trade and
agriculture is one of the major vehicles for regional market integration. Therefore, a well
developed agriculture is important to achieve pro-poor economic growth to tackle food
insecurity and attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). But, agricultural sector in
most of the Sub-Saharan countries in general and in West Africa in particular is underdeveloped and is mainly rain-fed. Therefore, it is affected by any change in weather patterns.
Food security is one of the greatest challenges of the world. Climate change impacts on food
security will be worst in countries already suffering high levels of hunger and will worsen
over time (Wheeler, and von Braun, 2013). Thus, people and communities who are
vulnerable to the effects of extreme weather now will become more vulnerable in the future
and less resilient to climate shocks. As it could be difficult for the country individually to
reach food sufficiency in each food, they could act collectively to reach it in order to reduce
the food importation from abroad and to flight against food insecurity. They have inherited
highly arbitrary political borders that vastly complicate current efforts to accelerate
agricultural growth and reduce hunger (Haggblade, 2013). The countries individually could
not tackle really the challenges. So, they could act together through regional coordination to
afford the challenges. In this frame the whole Africa has developed the Comprehensive
Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) that is expected to be implemented
by each country through regional integration.
1
Monsoon (from Arabic mowsim=season) is a seasonal reversing wind that leads to changes in precipitation.
The monsoon, due to the difference in the thermal capacities between ocean and continental masses, provokes a
humid, hot wind from the sea to the land that condensates due to cooler conditions on the land surface
(sometimes highlands) as precipitation. In winter, the process is inverted, and winds blow from the land to the
ocean (Callo-Concha et al., 2012).
Following the introduction section, section 2 will be devoted to the content of
CAADP/ECOWAP 2 , section 3 to food situation in West Africa, section 4 to the future
challenges for West African agriculture, section 5 to policy implication and the last section to
the conclusion.
Content of ECOWAP/CAADP
The Heads of States adopted at their 19 January 2005 meeting the Agricultural Policy of the
West African States, ECOWAP, as an instrument for implementing CAADP. To foster
agricultural development, in 2003 the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)
launched CAADP (Zimmermann et al., 2009). The Conference of the Heads of States in
Yamoussoukro in 2002 gave to ECOWAS, as the Regional Economic Community, the
mandate to coordinate the implementation of the different components of NEPAD, notably its
agricultural component (CAADP) (ECOWAS, 2009).
The CAADP initiative takes a continent-wide view, but is expected to be implemented at
regional levels. The goal of CAADP is to “help African countries reach a higher path of
economic growth through agriculture-led development, which eliminates hunger, reduces
poverty and food insecurity, and enables expansion of exports.” The original focus was to
promote immediate interventions that best respond to the widely recognised crisis situation of
African agriculture. Thus, CAADP had been cast to deliberately focus on investment in the
three pillars that were deemed to make the earliest difference to African agriculture’s dire
situation: i) sustainable land use, ii) rural infrastructure and trade related capacities, and iii)
food security.
Key principles and goals to be achieved within the frame of CAADP by each country by the
year 2015 are:

Improve the productivity of agriculture to attain an average annual growth rate of 6
percent, with particular attention to small-scale farmers, especially focusing on
women.
2

Allocate 10 percent or more of their budget to agriculture.

Have dynamic agricultural markets within countries and between regions.
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Common Agricultural Policy

Have integrated farmers into market economy and have improved access to markets to
become a net exporter of agriculture products.

Achieve a more equitable distribution of wealth.

Be a strategic player in agricultural science and technology development.

Practice environmentally sound production methods and have a culture of sustainable
management of the natural resource base.
Food situation before and after 2005 in West Africa
Despite the implementation of ECOWAP since 2005, ECOWAS countries continue to face
food insecurity. Proportion of undernourished remained relatively at high level compared to
the situation of the rest of the developing world. This is depicted by the table 1 which shows
the evolution of undernourishment in the whole, Northern and Sub-Saharan Africa. The
number of people undernourished has increased from 220 million in 2007-09 to around 239
million in 2010-12 (FAO, WFP and IFAD, 2012). Before 2007, this number was relatively
low. That means even with CAADP African countries are still facing food insecurity issues.
The fingers of the situation are also depicted in the tables 2 and 3. The countries that have
made a positive change so far regarding the prevalence of undernourishment are Benin,
Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. Even with a
decrease of the proportion of undernourished people in these countries, the situation is still
alarming compare to the fingers of the rest of developing world.
Table 1: Undernourishment in Africa
Africa
Northern Africa
Sub-Saharan
Africa
Number (millions) and prevalence (%) of
undernourishment
1990199920042007201092
2001
06
09
12
175
205
210
220
239
27.30%
25.30% 23.10% 22.60% 22.90%
5
5
5
4
4
3.80%
3.30%
3.10%
2.70%
2.70%
170
200
205
216
234
32.80%
30% 27.20% 26.50% 26.80%
Source: FAO, WFP and IFAD, 2012
Table 2: Prevalence of undernourishment and progress towards the World Food Summit
(WFS) and the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets in developing countries
Source: FAO, WFP and IFAD, 2012
Table 3: Undernourishment in West Africa
Benin
Burkina Faso
Cape Verde
Cote d'Ivoire
The Gambia
Ghana
Guinea
Guinea Bissau
Liberia
Mali
Niger
Nigeria
Senegal
Sierra Leone
Togo
West Africa without Cape Verde, Gambia and
Guinea Bissau
Proportion of undernourished in total population (%)
19992004- 2007- 2010- Change
1990-92 2001
06
09
12
so far
22.4
16.4
13.1
10.8
8.1
-63.8
22.9
26.4
25.8
24.4
25.9
13.1
13.7
19.9
19.6
19.3
40.5
18.4
16.6
20.6
9.5
17
32.9
25.3
36.9
19.3
21.7
41.9
32.8
34.9
21.5
25.8
10.2
24.2
41.1
25.2
29.6
14.7
20
6.8
16.9
35.5
20.4
29.6
9.5
13.6
7.3
16.5
33.1
19.8
27.39167 23.56667 19.075
17.1
21.4
5.8 <5
na
15.5
17.3
31.4
7.9
12.6
8.5
20.5
28.8
16.5
Source: FAO, WFP and IFAD, 2012
Besides the undernourishment ECOWAS countries are mostly ranked in the group of low
human development countries except Cape Verde and Ghana that are among the medium
human development countries. Which situation means that these countries are among the
56.2
-6
-4.6
-68.8
-65.9
-56
-5.5
-31.3
-49.7
poorest around the world even though they have natural resources like oil, gas and uranium.
They have also a very large basin (Niger basin) they could use to develop their agriculture.
The basin has an agricultural potential of nearly 2.5 millions of ha of which 20% were
exploited (ECOWAS-SWAC/OECD, 2008). It has among other a partial and non permanent
navigability over around 3800 km of the main stream and of its main affluents. In Benin, the
Niger basin covers around 42 % of the country size, but agriculture is mostly rain-fed with
use most of the time of local seeds. These countries are not using yet the potentialities of their
lands, which leads to their poorer situation.
The analysis of the Human Development Index (HDI) shows mainly a high correlation
between the indices of the countries (table 4). Therefore, the countries have to coordinate
their action in order to tackle poverty issue through agriculture since it is a major sector.
However, HDI of Senegal is negatively correlated with HDI of Cote d’Ivoire, Niger, Sierra
Leone and Togo. The negative correlation is relatively high for Cote d’Ivoire and Niger,
which means that the improvement of the situation in Senegal could lead to degradation in
Cote d’Ivoire and Niger, ceteris paribus. But, it is worth to note that as it is just a correlation
analysis that may not be the case and a deeper analysis has to be done before concluding.
Thus, all countries have to fulfil the commitments regarding CAADP/ECOWAP. Agricultural
policies should be a key instrument of the regional integration. It is necessary to set a strong
cooperation by reinforcing the regional institution in order to oblige each country to reach the
targets. Moreover, it is not sufficient to allocate at least 10 % of the budget to agricultural
sector. They have to be sure that the funds reach effectively farmers. That means they have to
be sure that the funds do not serve for bureaucratic expenses.
Table 4: Correlation between HDI indices for the period 1980-2012
Benin
Benin
Burkina
Faso
Cape
Verde
Cote
d'Ivoire
The
Gambia
Burkina
Faso
Cape
Verde
Cote
d'Ivoire
Gambia
Ghana
Guinea
Guinea
Bissau
Liberia
Niger
1
0.982
1
0.993
0.997
1
0.778
0.645
0.701
1
0.655
0.786
0.737
0.034
1
Ghana
0.969
0.998
0.991
0.597
0.822
1
Guinea
Guinea
Bissau
1
0.982
0.993
0.778
0.655
0.969
1
0.866
0.945
0.912
0.359
0.945
0.963
0.866
1
Liberia
0.982
1
0.997
0.645
0.786
0.998
0.982
0.945
1
1
0.982
0.993
0.778
0.655
0.969
1
0.866
0.982
Mali
Mali
1
Nigeria
Senegal
Sierra
Leone
Togo
Niger
0.792
0.663
0.717
1
0.058
0.616
0.792
0.381
0.663
0.792
1
Nigeria
0.998
0.992
0.999
0.736
0.702
0.983
0.998
0.896
0.992
0.998
0.752
1
Senegal
Sierra
Leone
0
0.189
0.115
-0.629
0.756
0.249
0
0.5
0.189
0
-0.61
0.064
1
0.927
0.842
0.88
0.956
0.327
0.807
0.929
0.617
0.842
0.929
0.962
0.903
-0.37
1
Togo
0.997
0.963
0.981
0.827
0.59
0.945
0.997
0.822
0.963
0.997
0.84
0.99
-0.08
0.96
Source: The author based on data from UNDP, 2013
Future challenges for West African agriculture
The scenarios for future climate in Africa show many fingers. For our scenarios, future
annual warming across Africa ranges from below 0.20 C decade-1 (B1-low scenario) to over
0.50 C decade-1 (A2-high) (Hulme et al., 2001). The warming is greatest over the interior
semi-arid tropical margins of the Saharan and central southern Africa, and least in equatorial
latitudes and costal environments. According to them, futures changes in mean seasonal
rainfall in Africa are less well defined. Under the B1-low scenario, relatively few regions in
Africa experience a change in either DJF or JJA rainfall that exceeds the 1 sigma level of
natural rainfall variability simulated by the HadCM2 model. The exceptions are parts of
equatorial East Africa where rainfall increases by 5 to 30% in DJF and decreases by 5 to 10%
in JJA. Some areas of Sahelian West Africa and the Mahgreb also experience “significant”
rainfall decreases in JJA season under the B1-low scenario. These changes in climate system
are predicted to affect agricultural production.
As illustration, Kurukulasuriya et al. (2006), by using data from a survey of more than 9,000
farmers across 11 African countries (a cross-sectional approach) estimated how farm net
revenues are affected by climate change compared with current mean temperature. The
results have shown that revenues fall with warming for dry land crops (temperature elasticity
of –1.9) and livestock (–5.4), whereas revenues rise for irrigated crops (elasticity of 0.5),
which are located in relatively cool parts of Africa and are buffered by irrigation from the
effects of warming.
As agriculture is mainly rain-fed, it will be affected by future climate conditions depicted by
the scenarios. Without relevant policies farmers that are already mostly poor may develop a
strong risk averse behaviour. That situation could lead to a vicious circle of poverty and then
to a trap of under-development. Moreover, use of fertilizer, improved varieties, tractor is still
underdeveloped. The cropping systems in West Africa are mostly characterized by low yields
and declining productivity, high risk due to climatic and market uncertainties, labor
1
constraints (mainly for soil preparation and weeding), low use of external inputs (fertilizer,
improved hybrids, animal and mechanical power), weak extension services, poor transport
and communication infrastructure, and therefore strong orientation towards subsistence
(Yilma, 2006, Kpongor, 2007, Ntare et al., 2007, Schindler, 2009, in Callo-Concha et al.,
2012). Thus, governments have to fill this technology gap in the agricultural sector in order to
benefit for the natural opportunities of their lands.
Policy implication
 ECOWAS countries have to choose main crops per groups of countries in order to
attain food sufficiency regionally, but by taking into account the specificity of each
country due to the fact that farmers in developing countries produce jointly for selfconsumption and for the market. They will not accept to shift from the production of
the main crops they used to consume for another one.
 They have to design and implement regional micro-finance for farmers. This could be
done by thinking about a regional agricultural bank that will work in each country and
finance really farmers since they are not able to get access to micro-credit. Microcredit should be linked to the main produces per country in order to push farmers to
produce them.
 They have to set up a strong regional institution toward agricultural coordination that
will supervise each country regarding the fulfilment of the commitment periodically.
This could be done by reinforcing ECOWAS.
 They have to design and implement regional investment toward the use of the
potentialities of the basins.
Conclusion
Agriculture is a major sector for West African economies and could constitute a key for
regional integration. West Africa is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change due
to its ecological fragility combined with institutional weakness and political and economic
instability. Thus, climate change is affecting the West African economies and appropriate
policies have to be taken in order to tackle the problem that is exacerbating food insecurity
issue. These policies could be taken collectively by the countries in order to be efficient.
Therefore, a very strong regional coordination of the agricultural policies is necessary
through the well implementation of CAADP/ECOWAP commitments by reinforcing the
regional institution.
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