West African Agriculture is at a turning point. After long periods of limited attention to the sector, West African countries and their Development Partners now clearly recognise the sector’s vital importance for broad-based growth, food security, nutrition and poverty reduction.

This renewed attention to Agriculture has crystallised around the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), which in West Africa is implemented by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and its member states as part of the ECOWAS Regional Agricultural Policy (ECOWAP). The recognition of agriculture’s vital role has coincided with fundamental changes in the regional and global context for agricultural growth, bringing about unprecedented opportunities along with new challenges.

The combination of strong demand growth, higher agricultural prices, and an improved macroeconomic and policy environment has generated the most conducive conditions for agricultural growth in over 30 years. At the same time, new challenges ranging from climate change to increased price volatility threaten the ability of West Africans to seize these opportunities.

This AfDB study on Agricultural Growth in West Africa (AGWA) is thus very timely. It examines Agriculture in its broader framework of a transforming agrifood system, from input supply to the consumer, for the 15 ECOWAS countries, using the term Agriculture (with a capital “A”) to designate this entire system.