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Research article - Peer-reviewed, 2015

Drivers of rice production: evidence from five Sub-Saharan African countries

Nasrin, Sultana; Bergman Lodin, Johanna; Jirström, Magnus; Holmquist, Björn; Andersson Djurfeldt, Agnes; Djurfeldt, Göran

Abstract

Background

In spite of considerable rice production gains over the past 50years, Sub-Saharan Africa is becoming increasingly dependent on rice imports as demand is outpacing domestic supply. The serious economic and social strains caused by this have urged national leaders to address production deficits. The aim of this article is to analyse and discuss the drivers behind recent changes in rice production in Africa South of the Sahara, focusing on Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania and Mozambique. Considering the period 2002-2008, we model production performance and changes in production amongst 317 rice-growing households using multilevel and longitudinal data. We evaluate and discuss the role of three key processes: the role of commercial drivers, farm technology and macro-level conditions.

Results

We show that until 2002, production was driven by a combination of the three key processes considered, while during the period 2002-2008, production increases were primarily associated with area expansion and commercial drivers. This suggests that production lately has been more driven by processes of extensification than intensification. We also note that in none of the periods considered, the share of the state budget allocated to agriculture had a significant effect on production and that recent developments do not give any obvious support for an Asian-style state-driven Green Revolution in rice in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Conclusions

The role of commercialization in explaining changes in production suggests that policies strengthening food staple markets in the sub-continent hold great potential for driving rice production in the near future. Due to the scarcity of available land, the possibilities of further growth in the rice sector are limited without an intensification of production. Hence, farmers also need to access new farm technology, and positive development of rice production would in turn contribute to an improvement of food security.

Keywords

Rice production – Rice consumption – Africa – Change in production – Commercialization – New technology – Macro-level conditions – Longitudinal data – Multilevel data

Published in

Agriculture and Food Security
2015, Volume: 4, article number: 12

    Sustainable Development Goals

    SDG2 Zero hunger

    UKÄ Subject classification

    Human Geography
    Sociology (excluding Social work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology)
    Social Sciences Interdisciplinary

    Publication identifier

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40066-015-0032-6

    Permanent link to this page (URI)

    https://res.slu.se/id/publ/70061