Scaling-up climate-resilient rice production in West Africa
West Africa has had an impressive economic growth in the past two decades, with economic growth rates at above
5% between 2000 and 2014 (Africa’s Development Dynamics 2018)1. Yet it is uneven as Nigeria, Ghana and Côte
d’Ivoire represent 85% of regional Gross domestic product (GDP). High informality, increasing inequalities and poverty
also undermine growth resilience. Growth in the region is not only driven by the oil and mineral sectors but also by the
agricultural sector, which has been the fastest-growing in the world since the 1980s. Agriculture is still the major source
of food, income and livelihood for 70–80 percent of the population but it is not currently able to meet the growing food
needs of the population. Rapid population growth and increasing urbanization have increased food needs and changed
the consumption patterns of the population with a shift towards a higher consumption of imported cereals (wheat and
rice). Today, West Africa is the rice basket of Sub-Saharan Africa, producing over two-thirds of its rice. Rice is a staple
crop that has been grown in West Africa for more than 3500 years since the domestication of African rice (Oryza
glaberrima). Produced by low-income smallholders across the entire region, rice plays a key role in regional food
security for rural and urban populations. In recent years, increasing demand stemming from population growth and
steady increases in annual per capita consumption (combined at 5.93% per year from 2010-2017; with per capita
consumption in 2017 as high as 164 kg in Sierra Leone and 150 kg in Guinea) has outpaced production (4.1% per
year for the same time period), leading to ever-increasing rice imports from Asia, accounting for 46% of total rice
consumption in 2017. This places a heavy burden on government budgets and exposes the region to the volatility of
world market prices. This became apparent in 2008, when world market prices tripled in less than four months,
resulting in riots (e.g. Liberia, Senegal) over a staple food that the majority of the population could not afford anymore.2
In response, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) launched a regional Rice Offensive in 2013
intending to achieve rice self-sufficiency by 2025.