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Côte d'Ivoire: Government Pledges Investment in Agriculture
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UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
23 June 2008
Posted to the web 23 June 2008
Abidjan
The government of Cote d'Ivoire has promised to inject 18 billion CFA francs (US$46 million) into rice production over the next four years, with the goal of making the country a net producer of rice by 2012.
The input of money into seeds and machinery will create 6,000 new jobs and boost output from 700,000 tonnes to 900,000 tonnes, per year moving it closer to its pre-2002 civil war level, the government says.
Cote d'Ivoire, a fertile West Africa country which is one of the largest producers of cocoa in the world, currently imports 900,000 tonnes of rice annually at a cost of 150 billion CFA francs (US$355 million) according to Marc Koffi, an independent agricultural analyst in Abidjan.
"This [new policy] has a big significance for household and state finances," Koffi said. "It was important that a solution be found to deal with the food crisis in Cote d'Ivoire. But it's a shame that the government didn't think of doing it five years ago."
Since April, Cote d'Ivoire's government has been grappling with growing public discontent as the global phenomenon of rising food and energy prices started hitting local consumers.
Consumer organisations mobilised hundreds of people to march in Abidjan in April and have accused the government of not doing enough to help poor people cope with the crisis. At least one person has been killed and several wounded in clashes between protestors and the security forces.
The government subsequently cut taxes on basic products including rice, wheat and milk, and set up a committee to develop programmes to encourage national agricultural production.
The government's self-sufficiency policy follows an announcement last week by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that it has started distributing seeds and grains to 21,000 vulnerable people.
"The rural population has not stopped being impoverished since the end of the [political and military] crisis in 2002," said Elise Bjerrheim, head of the ICRC in the northern town Korhogo in a statement. "With these distributions, we are attempting to give people the capability to provide for themselves."
Cote d'Ivoire experienced a brief civil war in 2002 and five subsequent years of political and military instability which ended in 2007 with the signing of a peace accord between rebels who held the north of the country and the government which controlled the south, and since then some humanitarian aid donors have reduced their programming in the country.
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[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]
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