Creating New Markets for African Sorghum Farmers

Lack of international markets for locally grown cereals such as sorghum is a major constraint to economic development for West African farmers. Lack of international markets has traditionally resulted in price declines in normal and good weather years since consumers can only eat so much of a staple. Once consumers have enough of the staple, prices collapse, as there are no other markets. These price declines discourage farmers from using higher input levels and therefore achieving productivity gains. Hence, facilitating the growth of the food and feed processing industries for the basic staples is critical for the rapid economic growth of developing countries. To address this constraint USAID, in 2005, funded a project under the Initiative to End Hunger in Africa (IEHA). This project focused on transferring new sorghum technologies linked to the market development for feed processors and intensive poultry producers in four Sahelian countries where these sectors are growing rapidly, particularly in Senegal