Agriculture in Mali

The agricultural sector in Mali, which accounts for one third of GDP, occupies two thirds of the workforce. Production of dry cereal, the staple diet of the population, is marked by very low productivity. Cereal production in Mali, however, exceeds the country’s food needs (surplus of 264,300 tons in 2005-2006). Food difficulties encountered by the population (once every three years for twenty years) would be more a problem of access due to poverty and transportation costs. The agricultural growth is attributable to two crops, rice and cotton.

• The irrigated rice production was the only sector registering a growth of agricultural productivity in recent years continues.
• Cotton remains the number one cash crop in Mali. The sector has 200,000 family farms and 3.3 million people live from it, directly and indirectly.
• Livestock accounts for 11% of GDP and is the third export sector, the market covers mainly the coastal countries of the sub-region. The potential for breeding is important.

Agri-ProFocus Mali

A successful, highly participatory multi-stakeholder meeting in Sikasso in November 2011 resulted in good draft action plans, which were finalised some 2½ months later (February) in a 2-day session in Sikasso. The innovation communities formed are: Access to financial services; Marketing and market access; Access to inputs and equipment; Management of the family farm; and Access to land. Willingness among the Dutch Agri-ProFocus members and Embassy to support the plans, by means of financial & human resources, has been high. Yet, the turmoil that started at the end of March 2012 slowed down the development process around the Agri-Hub in Sikasso and certainly hampers the start-up of a 2nd Agri-Hub in Ségou.

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