Narrowing the wheat gap in Sub-Saharan Africa: A review of consumption and production issues

Abstract

Many African countries stand at the crossroads with respect to wheat. They may choose to let recent trends continue in which case imported wheat will likely become a staple food for most urban consumers. Alternatively, if African countries want to avoid a high level of dependence on imported wheat, appropriate policy decisions must be taken now to manage wheat production and consumption. This paper reviews some of the options available to African policy makers for managing wheat consumption in the short to medium run and describes economic factors that influence the potential for increasing domestic wheat production over the longer run. Policy reforms implemented during the 1980s to curtail wheat consumption growth have apparently begun to take effect. However, efforts to build up domestic production capacity generally have been less successful. Recent studies are cited which demonstrate that wheat production in Africa can sometimes be efficient, but only under certain conditions that have not always been recognized by policy makers. Consideration needs to be taken into account of both sides of the wheat balance equation in order to design efficient and equitable policies and to determine appropriate levels of funding for future wheat research