Maize trade has strong potential in West Africa, given the growing urban demand for maize either for human consumption as food, beverage, and oil, or for animal feed. Improved storage, processing, packaging and distribution are essential to increasing the competitiveness of the maize value chain and enhancing regional trade. However, key constraints are poor access to agricultural inputs and credit; inadequate post-harvest handling, storage capacities and market infrastructure; limited market information; tariff and non-tariff barriers that increase transaction cost and time; transportation difficulties; weak linkages among value chain actors; and some national governments’ limited perspective on matters of food security.
The strategy of the maize value chain is to establish close partnerships with regional private-sector organizations, which offer the best prospects for building institutional sustainability and facilitating trade beyond the life of USAID ATP.
At the production level, we establish partnerships for disseminating information about integrated crop management practices for improved yields; promoting bulk-buying of agro-inputs, production contracts and public-private partnerships (PPPs); and strengthening the business development capacities of producer and seed organizations. At the storage level, we assist in the development of warehouse receipting systems to improve credit access and risk management to producers and traders, and in the development and application of an agreed-upon grading and standards system that responds to market demand. At both the processing and marketing levels, to improve coordination among producer, processing and trader organizations, we are facilitating a regional maize network, upgrading small-scale processing operations, and promoting stakeholder participation in trade and advocacy events.
Additionally, we work on providing increased access to market information and services – prices, bids and offers, contacts - through an Internet and mobile-phone based platform; advocating for policy initiatives that address trade barriers; promoting transport compliance with ECOWAS and UEMOA’s rules and regulations; increasing stakeholders’ access to and use of financial services; and helping cereals organizations better serve their members and improve the value chain’s overall productivity, competitiveness and regional trade.
In all our interventions, we are committed to gender equity and to sustainability through the implementation of mitigation measures when there is a threat of adverse environmental effects.
Evans Peter Nsiah is on a mission to change agriculture in West Africa, starting with his corner of Ghana.
A cowpea and maize farmer and trader in Ejura al area in Ghana’s northern Ashanti region farmers in the correct use of pesticides in a regional, train-the-trainer workshop on Integrated Pest Management (IPM) provided jointly... [Read more]
When Elorm Goh graduated with a sociology degree from the University of Ghana in 2006, no one expected her to look for a job in the agriculture in-dustry, particularly as an international trader. After all, recent university graduates seldom see agriculture as a burgeoning industry. But Elorm’s frequent trips to one of the larger markets... [Read more]
USAID-sponsored studies and training contributed to a change in regional trade policy.
In 2006, animal trade – primarily targeting poultry -- was banned...
Rice farmers are enthusiastic about SRI
USAID efforts in bringing the new Intensive Rice-Growing System (Système de Riziculture Intensif, or SRI) to one of Mali’s rice-growing... [Read more]
