Rice and irrigation in West Africa: Achieving food security with agricultural water management strategies
Introduction
Rice has become a staple food for half of the world's population. In West Africa, population growth, rapid urbanization and rising per capita incomes have boosted the demand for rice, which is rising at 6% per annum, faster than anywhere else in the world, and also faster than any other grain. In 2009, rice consumption stood at 26.9 kg per capita in Ghana, 25.5 kg per capita in Burkina Faso and 8.3 kg per capita in Niger [14]. Rice demand has increased quantitatively but also changed qualitatively: consumer's preferences have changed towards aromatic and long grain white rice.
Four ecological rice production systems can be found across West Africa: rain-fed upland (40% of the rice area), rain-fed lowlands (38–40%), irrigated (12–14%) and mangrove swamps (4%). Rice production is dominated by smallholder farmers who rely on rain-fed conditions with limited use of improved seeds, fertilizer, mechanization, post-harvest facilities and absence of water management. Poor marketing and transport infrastructure increase farmers' transaction and information costs of getting goods to the market. As a result, the quality and the quantity of local rice production have stagnated in recent years and most of the rice eaten in the region is imported from Asia [6]. As Fig. 1 shows, since 1960, rice imports in West and Central Africa have increased from 40,000 to 6 million metric tons, at an annual cost of over $1 billion [15].
In 2008, commodity and energy price spikes raised food import bills reviving food security fears, particularly in West African countries where most of the world's hungry live. After two years, rice prices almost returned to their pre-2008 levels but became much more volatile and unpredictable (Fig. 2). Thus, most governments in West Africa rely on protectionist price policy measures, such as import tariffs and fertilizer subsidies, to strengthen rice self-sufficiency and minimize their exposure to the volatility of international markets.
The domestic response to supportive government policies was remarkable in West Africa, where paddy production increased by 26.9% in 2008, 5.3% in 2009 and 9.7% in 2010, largely because of an expansion of the harvested area. However, demand still outstrips supply so the region continues to rely heavily on rice imports [3]. Based on expert projections, to decrease the dependency of rice-food security upon imports, a combination of both area expansion and yield increase are necessary [24], [30]. In the short term, rain-fed lowlands offer the most promising environment for area expansion and intensification if supplemented with gradual improvements in water management. In the longer term, a gradual shift from a pure rain-fed to irrigated system will allow a balanced rice-food security. Additionally, investments in water management need to be complemented with soil, fertility, technology and extension policies, for local production to be able to compete in quality and quantity with imported rice [18].
Rice development in the region depends not only on government policies but also on foreign aid. First, foreign aid donors influence the costs of rice development through their contribution to rice investment projects. Aid and/or concessional assistance may be targeted to regions that already produce rice efficiently or to projects that cannot compete without support, as non-efficiency objectives are usually in donors' interests (improve food security). Second, donors help shape rice policy as spokesmen for trade, price and subsidy policies. Donors engage in policy dialogs and consensus-building on the role of rice policies as part of a strategic framework for sustainable rural development, poverty reduction and food security [28].
The main goal of this study is to assess the role of investment in water management and of the micro-and macro-economic policies in three countries of West Africa (Burkina Faso, Ghana and Niger) in increasing domestic rice production while benefiting both farmers and the overall economy. First, we examine how rice production under different water management systems contributes to farmers' income. Second, we evaluate whether rice production is able to compete at international prices (without any government policy interventions). Finally, we assess the sensitivity of rice profitability to exogenous influences (world price of rice) and different agricultural policies (price, investment and macroeconomic) and compare the results across countries and water management systems.
Section snippets
The Policy Analysis Matrix
The analytical framework chosen to advise rice policy within the context of comparative advantage and private competitiveness is the Policy Analysis Matrix. The PAM has been used extensively to analyze the economic impacts of agricultural policies in several countries and crops [4], [10], [11], [13], [19], [20], [22], [26], [33], [34], [37], [38], [39]. The PAM can provide decisionmakers and analysts with both a helpful and simple conceptual construct for understanding the effects of policy and
Baseline results
The PAM results for the representative farm in each region and water management regime are presented in Table 4. To allow comparison among the different countries, ratios free of monetary designation are presented in Table 5. These indicators refer to relative degree of competitiveness, efficiency and policy transfers. The main findings, which are explained in detail below, are as follows:
- (i)
Private incentives/disincentives to produce rice vary geographically according to the local price of rice
Conclusions and recommendations
Our PAM results for rice production in three West African countries indicate that private incentives to produce rice vary geographically according to the local price of rice in each country and the valuation of family labor. Under 2010 prices and technology levels, rice production is unprofitable for farmers in the sites studied in Ghana and Niger. Rice yields and quality remain low, so that the value added by rice production does not cover the cost of domestic factors.
Irrigation does not
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