EPAR Research Brief #78
Fri, 11/06/2009
Authors: 
Ryan Gockel
Cecily Stokes-Prindle
Abstract: 

In the decades following independence in 1960, Côte d’Ivoire stood out as a shining example of economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. GDP increased at an annual average of 8.1 percent from 1960 to 1979, led largely by cocoa and coffee exports.  Low export earnings from a fall in world cocoa prices and a heavy public debt burden halted this growth in the 1980s, followed by civil conflict beginning in 1999. Three decades of focus on export crops rather than food crops also left Côte d’Ivoire with a growing food deficit. This literature review examines the state of agriculture in Côte d’Ivoire and the history of government involvement in the agricultural sector. We find that while the country is poised to reemerge from a decade of economic stagnation and civil war after signing the Ouagadougou Political Accord in 2007, the political economy of Côte d’Ivoire is still heavily dependent upon and influenced by the production of cocoa. Cocoa is the top export, and cocoa export taxes provide one of the largest sources of revenue for the Government of Côte d’Ivoire (GoCI). Cocoa is not heavily dependent on fertilizer inputs and growers have increased production by expanding cropland. The small contribution of fertilizer to the production of this essential crop may help explain the GoCI’s low priority on expanding fertilizer production and use. Given that a large part of government revenue comes from the export of cocoa and coffee, the government has chosen to focus resources on crops that increase revenue. Even with the food riots in 2008, the GoCI has not made increasing domestic food production an important focus of agricultural policy.

EPAR’s Political Economy of Fertilizer Policy series provides a history of government intervention in the fertilizer markets of eight Sub-Saharan African countries: Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tanzania. The briefs focus on details of present and past voucher programs, input subsidies, tariffs in the fertilizer sector, and the political context of these policies. The briefs illustrate these policies’ effect on key domestic crops and focus on the strengths and weaknesses of current market structure. Fertilizer policy in SSA has been extremely dynamic over the last fifty years, swinging from enormous levels of intervention in the 1960s and 70s to liberalization of markets of the 1980s and 1990s. More recently, intervention has become more moderate, focusing on “market smart” subsidies and support.

See also:

EPAR Research Brief #42: Political Economy of Fertilizer Policy in Nigeria

EPAR Research Brief #50: Political Economy of Fertilizer Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa: Executive Summary

EPAR Research Brief #75: Political Economy of Fertilizer Policy in Tanzania

EPAR Research Brief #76: Political Economy of Fertilizer Policy in Mozambique

EPAR Research Brief #77: Political Economy of Fertilizer Policy in Ghana

EPAR Research Brief #79: Political Economy of Fertilizer Policy in Kenya

EPAR Research Brief #80: Political Economy of Fertilizer Policy in Senegal

EPAR Research Brief #81: Political Economy of Fertilizer Policy in Malawi

 

Type of Research: 
Literature Review
Research Topic Category: 
Sustainable Agriculture & Rural Livelihoods
Agricultural Inputs & Farm Management
Political Economy & Governance
Population(s): 
Countries/Governments
Smallholder Farmers
Geographic focus: 
West Africa Region and Selected Countries
Dataset(s): 
FAOSTAT
Other Datasets

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