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 […]
To fight food insecurity and climate change, Senegal is increasingly employing a relatively new strategy for growing rice, known as the “system of rice intensification” (SRI). Developed in Madagascar in the 1960s, this method of growing rice intentionally stresses the plants, which allows the farmer to use less water, improves soil fertility, decreases methane emissions, […]
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 […]