The regional coordination of the Food System Resilience Programme invited rice sector stakeholders from Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Ghana, Togo, Chad and Sierra Leone to a meeting to discuss the ECOWAS Rice Observatory. On 16 June, some thirty stakeholders and partners gained a better understanding of how the Observatory works, as well as the various activities planned to help countries set up multi-stakeholder platforms to boost the rice sector in West Africa.
Rice is the second most consumed cereal in Africa, after maize. In West Africa, where more than two-thirds of the cereals consumed in Sub-Saharan Africa are consumed, rice has seen the greatest growth, with consumption quadrupling over the last 30 years under the triple influence of population growth, strong urbanisation and increased per capita rice consumption. West African consumption has risen from 5 million tonnes in the early 1990s to more than 20 million tonnes by the end of 2021 (FAO, 2022).
In view of its importance in helping to combat food insecurity, rice has been chosen as the main value chain by all PRSP beneficiary countries. In these countries, with the support of ECOWAS through its rice observatory, the aim will be to build the capacity of stakeholders in the value chain and help coordinate investments from production to marketing of rice. The observatory will focus on mapping stakeholders and strengthening their capacity for coordination, data collection and regular communication on the development of the rice value chain. Platforms will be set up to better manage the various processes on the ground, with a strong involvement of the private sector.
Discussions with the countries highlighted the interest shown by players in the rice sector, but also the needs in terms of capacity building. The main actions underway in Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, Sierra Leone and Côte d'Ivoire, presented by Dr Boladalé, head of the ECOWAS Rice Observatory, provided a better understanding of the activities to be carried out in the field and, above all, the nature of ECOWAS support.
Better organised rice sectors in the countries with functional platforms will help to strengthen and make operational the West Africa Rice Observatory, which will thus coordinate investments in the rice sector at regional level and inform political decisions for better regulation of rice markets.
The ECOWAS Rice Observatory was set up to address the rice issue in the sub-region. Its main aims are to create a framework for dialogue between stakeholders; strengthen public-private partnerships; coordinate investments by the government, the private sector and technical and financial partners in market-based solutions to support the national rice development strategy; drive the transformation of the rice sector and facilitate access to finance along the entire value chain.
