West African rice farmers reconquering the local rice market

• It has become the most consumed grain in West Africa.

• More than 5 million families of rice farmers cultivate 6 million hectares of rice.

• The demand for rice is growing by around 6% per year (from 11 million tonnes in 2008/2009 to 15 million tonnes in 2012/2013), with annual per capita consumption exceeding 100 kg in some countries.

Rice, an ultra-strategic commodity in West Africa!

Current local production only covers c. 60% of regional demand.

The other 40% of the needs are covered by imports from Asia.

Depending on the world market is becoming a risky and unsustainable strategy for West African states!

West Africa is the world's largest rice importing region. 20% of the volumes traded on the world market are consumed in West Africa, even though the region has the potential to feed its population. However, the volumes produced in West Africa represent on average only 7% of world production, which is not enough to feed the population entirely. This increases the temptation for decision-makers to continue with food policies heavily based on the import of rice. It makes it easy to source homogeneous and well-cleaned rice. However, this dependence of West Africa on rice from elsewhere is problematic, because at the slightest difficulty the (Asian) producer countries will first ensure the food security of their own populations. This is evidenced by the reduction in the export of rice by Asian countries which was a trigger for the surge in prices in Africa in 2008.

West African rice farmers can feed West Africa!

Prospects for increased production for import are bleak, not only because populations in Asia continue to grow, but also because of the stagnation of agricultural land due to urbanisation and accelerated industrialisation in eastern countries. In the long term, West African rice food security can no longer depend on food imports. It will depend on the capacity of the region to develop its own rice cultivation - also considering the real threats of climate change as well as the local rice market.

The purpose of this programme is for West African rice to become more competitive in terms of quality, price, appearance, and accessibility. It will win back a larger share of the local West African market.

The desired structural change is that the West African family farmers become viable entrepreneurs and reliable suppliers of rice to the region’s urban and institutional markets, sought after for the quality of their product.

• Improve the quality of locally produced rice: West African rice is generally fresh and therefore more nutritious. However, consumers blame it for its many impurities (stones and rice husks), its poor appearance and its low rate of swelling.

• Improve the availability of rice on the market. To this end, adapting rice production to climate change is crucial. Farmers are can lose their production due to drought or flooding in their region. In addition, in irrigated plots where producers do not respect certain cultivation practices, they contribute very strongly to the production of nitrous gas, a gas which strongly contributes to the greenhouse effect and therefore to climate change. Rice is recognised as a crop that contributes the most to GHG emissions from agriculture. Women engaged in processing have so far used wood as their main source of energy, a resource that is becoming scarce with the effects of climate change. Proven technologies that reduce wood consumption exist and can be used.

• Control production costs: the lack of control of production costs by value chain actors, especially farmers, means that the price of rice produced locally is generally higher than that of imported rice. In addition, it limits the improvement of the producers' income.

• Strengthen business relations between actors of the rice value chains in the region: the bad business relations between actors of the value chains have resulted in a crisis of confidence. As long as the actors of the rice value chains do not cooperate well, it will be difficult for them to win back their market.

• Connect national and regional food security policymakers with those who implement them and those who are the primary beneficiaries (farmers and processors of national rice). An effective policy for the development of rice growing in West Africa should imperatively make the link between national food security and the profitability of rice growing at the level of family farms. However, governments often hardly recognise rice farmers’ organisations as full partners in rice sector developments, which can harm West African farmers’ growth. Their involvement in commercial transactions is in many cases limited by the government to selling their rice to a governmental organisation, at a fixed price. In the most serious cases, the good intentions of the government become factors of annoyance for farmers, or factors disrupting the market, damaging the farmers. One example being the import of rice by the government without considering local availability.

• Improve management within the rice value chains in the region: the situation presented in the context is often the result of weak consultation between the actors to create an environment that is helpful to the real development of West African rice value chains.

• Master statistical data to better meet market needs: farmers’ organisations have little control over their data and very little control over their statistics. As a result, they find themselves in a weak position during negotiations with decision-makers or other agricultural value chain actors. Mastering their statistics would allow them to be stronger in their arguments during negotiations.

• Make the rice sector attractive to young people

• Improving rice quality according to market needs, appearance (packaging), facilitation of access to efficient processing equipment: support for the construction of parboiling centers and rice peeling units; support for the upgrading of farmer organizations' processing units, for the construction of end of the line, and distribution centers; support for the establishment of a quality approach, facilitation of access to suitable/supporting financing for the establishment of suitable financing mechanisms,
• Support of farmer organizations for the application of smart production techniques in regard to climate change; support for the adaptation and application of sustainable rice production standards; strengthening the production capacities of family farmers.
• Strengthening business relationships between actors to link production areas to markets: development of innovative and inclusive business models with integrated services, use of innovative tools for the development of business relationships (methodology link, Sensemaker, Scope Insight)
• Improvement of the management of value chains: development of multi-actor processes, support for the emerging and / or reinforcing of existing inter-professions
• Support for advocacy actions of actors for the creation of a favourable environment
• Support for the control of statistical data;
• Strengthening of the organizational, technical and managerial capacities of actors, in particular farmer organizations
• Support for inclusion of young people and women
• Funding and distributing the results with a view to scaling up efficient practices.

The Rikolto regional rice programme is implemented in five countries:

The main projects included in this programme are:

Promoting the future of Benin’s rice

Burkinabe women design an innovative, sustainable business model

Producing quality rice for Burkina Faso’s markets

Strengthening the success of Mali’s rice

Rice farmers’ organisations access a significant share of Mali’s institutional markets

Digital solutions for efficient management of rice commercialisation in Senegal