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West Africa and the Sahel are on the verge of adopting the first integrated agricultural input strategy, which will further facilitate access to quality inputs and boost agricultural productivity.

The strategy formulation process entered its final phase with an expert meeting held in Dakar, Senegal, in early November 2019.

Representatives from research institutions, the private sector, decision-makers and development players came together in a working group to draw up the region's pioneering integrated inputs strategy.

The integrated regional strategy focuses on improving the availability, accessibility and use of quality agricultural inputs.

Unlike previous strategies, which tended to treat inputs individually, the current plan covers crop seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, feed concentrates for livestock, vaccines and animal germplasm for priority crops, livestock and aquaculture.

Resilient inputs to cope with climate change

No region in Africa is more affected by climate change than the Sahel and most of West Africa. According to the experts, this strategy should pave the way for the development of adaptable crop varieties, as well as feed concentrates for small ruminant breeders in the Sahel.

"Today's agriculture cannot be indifferent to the effects of climate change. We need to move towards varieties that are resistant to climate change. We need varieties that are resistant to water stress, drought and flooding. We need quality inputs that adapt to the ecology of our regions", said Dr Garba Yahaya, Director General of Agriculture at Niger's Ministry of Agriculture.

Meeting the challenge of low agricultural productivity

The current strategy is being developed on behalf of three intergovernmental organizations. These include the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) and the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS).

All three organizations seek to increase agricultural productivity in a sustainable way. With population growth and land degradation a reality, these organizations see increasing food production as a solution. Doing so with minimal impact on the ecosystem is certainly a challenge.

"ECOWAS wants the region to increase agricultural productivity. It's hard to see how this ambition can be achieved without an integrated input strategy," says Dr Abdulai Jalloh, CORAF's Director of Research and Innovation. He led the strategy development process with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), West Africa.

According to experts, low agricultural productivity is mainly due to the low use of quality agricultural inputs. This strategy aims to reverse this trend.

"ECOWAS wants to ensure that key agricultural inputs are used, are affordable, accessible and of good quality. Not only do we need a regional agricultural input strategy for seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, but we also need to ensure that these activities are harmonized across the region," says the senior CORAF official.

Eight areas of intervention are addressed in the current iteration of the strategy:

• Building local capacity for the production and rational use of quality livestock feed ;
• Support for the production and sustainable use of improved animal germplasm ;
• Promoting public-private partnerships for the manufacture of veterinary vaccines and other veterinary medicines;
• Strengthen local capacity to produce quality seeds and fish feed, with a total reduction in dependence on imported seeds and fish feed;
• Promotion of SMART subsidies and credit for agricultural inputs;
• Promoting intra-regional trade in quality agricultural inputs ;
• Promotion of networks of approved distributors of agricultural inputs in rural areas ;
• Capacity building for research and extension institutions in agricultural input development.

What's left?

Once the comments from the Dakar meeting have been incorporated into the current iteration of the strategy, there will be a final meeting to validate the plan. It will then be submitted to the regional economic communities for implementation.

The strategy will be accompanied by an action plan to ensure its successful implementation.