Faced with a series of international crises that have destabilized value chains and caused a shortage of certain products, African states are aiming for food sovereignty. At the Paris Agricultural Show, several countries came to plead the cause of their agriculture and present their policies.
« In Senegal, we went from 1.5 million tonnes of cereals, all cereals combined in 2010, to 3.5 million tonnes “. As Aly Ngouille Ndyaye, the Senegalese Minister of Agriculture, reminds us, African countries did not wait for the Covid and the war in Ukraine to increase their agricultural yields. But these crises, which have made food imports scarcer and more expensive, push countries to go further. Food sovereignty has become the general watchword.
The strategy involves massive public investment. ” We have implemented this food strategy with a provisional budget of approximately five trillion [de francs CFA, NDLR] over five years, says Aly Ngouille Ndaye. To be practically self-sufficient in essential consumer products. »
Additional needs for national production
The food sovereignty strategy also involves research. And the provision of seeds and improved techniques to farmers. ” If by chance, we use appropriate plant material that the CNRA offers with yields that will double current yields, it will be easy to fill the gap, says Doctor Jean-Louis Konan, scientific director at the National Center for Agronomic Research of Côte d’Ivoire (CNRA). Whether in rice production, where we need 1.2 million additional tonnes, whether in bananas where we need 300,000 additional tonnes compared to national production, or whether in maize where we need an additional 200,000 tonnes. »
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Low-cost imports, shock absorbers of social crisis
It’s not as paradoxical as it seems, but cash crops can also contribute to food sovereignty. Ivorian agriculture, which is the most developed in West Africa, relies on its special economic zones to create added value in its sectors and therefore ultimately to relaunch agricultural investments. “ We have industrial zones dedicated to processing. There are platforms that are established where there is water and electricity. So the state does the essentials, and we only come to settle there », explains Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani, Ivorian Minister of Agriculture.
If agricultural protectionism is back in the public debate among the major powers, on the other hand, African leaders are pleading for open systems. In times of high inflation, low-cost imports remain shock absorbers of social crisis. But they also want free movement to go both ways. In this respect, the provisions adopted in December by the Europeans against products resulting from deforestation are the subject of virulent criticism in Africa.
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