Summary: Food insecurity caused by fragility, lack of agricultural progress and trade barriers in West Africa is a well-documented concern. A 2012 World Bank report, Africa Can Help Feed Africa showed that increasing the supply of food staples could be improved by better connecting African markets to each other. That report called for a stronger focus on removing trade barriers and building on the forces of regional integration. Now, World Bank Analysts have taken those concepts further. A new report, Connecting Food Staples and Input Markets in West Africa: A Regional Trade Agenda for ECOWAS Countries explores how West African governments can build an integrated, regional trade market for food staples. World Bank Senior economist, and author of the Report, Jean Christophe Maur: “There is actually very active trade in most products, whereas people often tend to focus only on a subset of products. Trade along borders is particularly important for instance. West Africa’s 2011 population of 342 million is expected to increase to 516 million by 2030 and to 815 million by 2050. The region is already home to a third of the African continents population and to some of its most vulnerable countries. World Bank Senior Economist and co-author, John Keyser: “Crop yields in West Africa are some of the lowest in the world. West Africa has a very quick – rapidly growing population, particularly in the urban areas, and it is not able to feed itself. It is heavily dependent on food imports. With greater productivity of the farmland, West Africa could certainly do a better job of feeding itself and through regional trade and trade with neighbours.” Michigan State University Professor Emeritus, John Staatz, an Agricultural Economist and African Studies expert, says it’s important for West African governments to think about how to make the whole region competitive to take advantage of the growth potential. “You’re not just dealing with a small local market. West Africa now part of a global economy, it has to deal with global competition. For example, there are imports of chicken coming in from Brazil, the other big global players. And to be globally competitive, you need to get these kinds of efficiencies that allow that huge market in West Africa to be accessed by all the farmers and actors in West Africa. There are great growth potentials for agriculture in West Africa, but achieving them is going to require greater regional integration.” Staple foods are the main source of calories in Sub-Saharan Africa, and in West Africa. In West Africa, staple foods like rice maize and cassava, provide the main source of calories in coastal countries, with millet and sorghum being an important source of food in Sahelian countries. However, trade in these foods is informal and therefore more fragile. Ben Shepard, co-author of the report: “A lot of the distribution happens very locally, so it’s not just people going into grocery stores as people going to local markets and things like that. And definitely, they would expect to see a difference if the sorts of policies that we look at in the book are implemented. We see a lot of scope in the book for win-win solutions, so what we call a win-win is where both producers and consumers win from a particular reform. So just to think of one example, improving post-harvest treatment, is a way in which to reduce losses. So that’s good for producers, in that they are getting more of their products to market and obviously getting better income. It is also good for consumers, because it reduces the gap between the farm gate price and the price that they pay in their market. So it means that you can have these kinds of scenarios where both sets of people stand to gain from a particular policy reform. Same thing with access to finance that can help improve efficiency in the value chain and that can be beneficial for producers and consumers.”
