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October 12, 2005
IFDC Presents “Hope
for West Africa's Agri-Input Market”
Ouagadougou,
Burkina Faso, 12 October, 2005 – The IFDC
Marketing Inputs Regionally (MIR) project recently
produced a 26- minute documentary on the agri-input
market in West Africa. Produced in both English and
French, this video deals with the importance of
developing an open, dynamic and competitive agri-input
market to increase agricultural productivity in West
Africa. It addresses West African stakeholders of
the public sector (ministries, regional and/or
sub-regional institutions), private sector (economic
operators/suppliers); farmer-based organizations
(producers and producers’ associations), the West
African civil society, development partners, and the
international public.
This video, organized
around three main topics, depicts the agri-input
market in three phases. First, it presents the
current market seen by the main actors, namely
agricultural producers who use inputs; the private
sector which distributes inputs; and the public
sector which regulates inputs marketing. This first
part highlights the realities, constraints, and
challenges characterizing the agri-input markets in
West Africa.
The video also
emphasizes some of the current efforts and advises
as to how West Africa should increase
competitiveness of the market in comparison with the
current globalization of the world economy. The
main part of the documentary proposes solutions
toward a much more competitive market in the
sub-region.
Presented in the form
of a forum, the video stresses the integrated nature
of the process because the options of sub-regional
integration make it possible to obtain scale
economies that can reduce transaction costs and
facilitate transparency and competitiveness of the
markets.
It is a mixture of
narration, images and interviews, which help to
depict current concerns for a more competitive agri-input
market enabling increased agricultural productivity
in West Africa. This approach, therefore, makes it
possible to have a better knowledge of the market
and to be aware of the need for acting to save the
agriculture sector.
The goal of this
documentary is to lead stakeholders of the fertile
triangle—agricultural producers, agri-input
distributors, and decisionmakers--to adopt behaviors
that allow the strengthening or the development of
affordable markets for the inputs that producers buy
and profitable markets for the agricultural products
they sell.
Copies of this video
are available from the MIR project in Ouagadougou
(Burkina Faso) and at all satellite offices of the
project in West Africa.
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The IFDC MIR Project
(Marketing Inputs regionally) is supporting the
creation of conditions favorable to the development
of an efficient, transparent, and competitive market
to improve the availability and affordability of
agri-inputs in West Africa. Thus, for about 2-1/2
years, it has been supporting the efforts of the
West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) and
those of the Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS), which aim to create a regional agri-input
market within the framework of a common agricultural
policy. Special attention is given to the
strengthening of the private sector and the
facilitation of dialogue among stakeholders of the
market. The MIR Project, therefore, contributes to
create conditions that allow stakeholders of
agriculture to make sustainable strategic choices to
meet the needs of the present and future
generations. |
