According to the FAO, the 2013 rice season in West Africa yielded “an all-time high [harvest] of 13.7 million tonnes (8.7 million tonnes, milled basis)”. This was attributed to exceptional harvests in Chad, Mali and Nigeria and favourable output levels in Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Sierra Leone and Togo. However, as a result of “erratic weather conditions, output fell in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Liberia, Niger and Senegal”.

While initial projections can only be tentative given weather-related uncertainties, the FAO forecasts a 1.46% expansion of West African rice production in 2014 to 13.9 million tonnes of paddy (8.8 million tonnes, milled basis). This is attributed “to Government assistance and increased investment in the sector”, which has increased the area under rice. The picture varies, however, from country to country across the region.

At the policy level “in 2013, officials in the Gambia announced plans to impose a full ban on rice imports by 2016, when they expect the country to be fully self-sufficient in rice.” In recent years the government of Gambia has sought to boost rice production through the distribution of inputs including improved NERICA rice varieties. More recently, under its Vision 2016 Rice Self-sufficiency Agenda, the government is “looking to promote large-scale cultivation of rice, multi-cropping, as well infrastructural improvements”. On this basis, the FAO anticipates an expansion of rice production above the record level of 2013, to reach a harvest of 72,000 tonnes (47,000 tonnes milled rice).

However, in 2012/13 Gambia’s annual rice imports reached 137,000 tonnes, with a national rice consumption of 178,822 tonnes. The government is therefore reconsidering its decision to ban rice imports from 2016, with any such ban being contingent upon self-sufficiency targets being met. Local experts have convincingly argued that an import ban in the absence of the attainment of self-sufficiency objectives would simply “result in rice smuggling as in the case of Nigeria”.

The government of Ghana is also seeking to actively promote local rice production to reduce import dependency and attain full self-sufficiency by 2018, “when production is targeted to reach 1.2 million tonnes”. The government has developed a range of input subsidy and improvement programmes (particularly targeting youth) and is supporting a range of irrigation initiatives. The FAO, however, implies that the Ghanaian government self-sufficiency target may be over-ambitious, since it would require 20% annual production growth.

The government of Liberia is hoping to encourage local rice production by introducing a 25% local procurement requirement for all government agencies. This is projected to create a market for some 3,500 tonnes of rice. Rice purchase areas are already taking place from farmers operating under a USAID support rice development scheme. Creating market opportunities for local rice producers through such public procurement initiatives is seen as essential if production development efforts are to prove sustainable.