According to the 2023 Harmonised Framework figures, the region will have more than 40 million people in a food deficit situation during the lean season of 2024. This is mainly due to the vulnerability of the food system, climate change, fluctuations in the global food market, security crisis, etc. To address the situation, ECOWAS is making the region's food security the focus of its strategies, notably the Regional Agricultural Policy (ECOWAP).

Since 2022, the region has been implementing the West African Food System Resilience Programme (FSRP) with financial support from the World Bank. The FSRP project is a programmatic approach that aims to increase agricultural productivity through agropastoral climate-smart practices while promoting digital advice, development of agricultural value chains and increase of agricultural products intra-regional trade.

For the moment, it targets about 6 million people in 8 countries: Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Chad, and Togo. With this programme, the region aims to reduce the number of vulnerable people by at least 25% by 2026. After two years of implementation, more than 1,200,000 people have benefited from the project's actions, 37% of them are women.

Digital advice versus agricultural advisory services

Though complementary, the two (02) concepts should be distinguished. Over 60% of the region's economy is based on agricultural labour. To take full advantage of this asset, it is essential to provide support to agricultural players. In the field, this support involves combining learning approaches such as (i) farmers’ field school approach, which encourages cross-learning among farmers, technicians and sometimes researchers; (ii) innovation platforms, which bring together sector players to solve technical and organisational issues; (iii) farmer-to-farmer advice, which promotes farmers' knowledge and ensures endogenous advice dynamic, (iv) experience sharing visits, etc.

But the current situation, which is marked by a shortage of agricultural supervisory staff in relation to needs in most countries, highlights the need for the region to change its approach to achieve better results. ECOWAS, therefore, encourages governments and partners to take advantage of digital technology and lay particular emphasis on digital advice, which is an innovative approach aimed at integrating technological advances into agriculture. This approach allows to anticipate shocks, particularly climate ones, reduce production costs and inputs quantity (water, energy, fertilisers, pesticides, etc.), thereby helping to improve competitiveness of the entire production and marketing chain.

Intra-regional trade of agricultural products among ECOWAS countries

International trade has grown steadily over recent decades, while intra-regional agricultural trade remains well below its potential. Currently, recorded intra-regional trade represents 12% of total exports, compared with 59% in Asia and 69% in Europe.

These figures are not just statistics, they are realities that have a direct impact on the lives of millions of people in the region. They represent missed opportunities for farmers, entrepreneurs, and local communities at a time when the region represents a vast market with the potential to foster economic growth and prosperity.

Faced with this situation, ECOWAS is leading several initiatives to improve the trend. With the FSRP project, ECOWAS has acquired an innovative analysis tool, the ECOWAS Agricultural Trade and Market Scoreboard (EATM-SCORECARD), which aims to better document intra-regional trade in agri-food products, identify gaps in agri-food trade policies and strengthen the implementation of regional policies and regional instruments to promote intra-regional trade by countries (SLEC, ECOWAP, AfCFTA, CET, etc.). The tool is being deployed in the FSRP countries, with capacity building for stakeholders to facilitate collection of trade data.