AGROHIVE AGROEXPERT INSIGHT SERIES

In today’s AgroExpert insight series, we interviewed Diaby Youssouf from Côte d’Ivoire who shared great insights on the agricultural market in Côte d’Ivoire and how advanced technologies are gradually being embraced for improved food production.

AGROHIVE: Let’s meet you Mr. Diaby. Could you tell us about yourself and work in the Cote d’Ivoire agricultural sector?

DIABY: My name is DIABY Youssouf. I’m Ivorian, I live in Abidjan, the economic capital of Ivory Coast. I hold an Agricultural Engineering Degree. I currently work as Monitoring and Evaluation Manager at SO-B-GREEN Cote d’Ivoire, a company headquartered in Ghana. We’re focused on setting up a Sustainability Program along the cocoa value chain for the benefit of Farmers. We deal with several Diversification Projects for empowering farmers in order to be more resilient.

AGROHIVE: Which sectors are the most attractive and why?

DIABY: Côte d’Ivoire’s economy is based on agriculture. The agricultural sector employs more than 2/3 of the active population. With a turnover of more than 2,000 billion CFA francs, the export of coffee and cocoa is the most profitable sector in Côte d’Ivoire. Moreover, in recent years, the emphasis has been placed on the secondary sector, especially the agri-food industry, for the transformation of our agricultural raw materials into semi-finished and finished products.

AGROHIVE: What are the sectors of the future?

DIABY: Processing of agricultural raw materials

AGROHIVE: What are the difficulties encountered when starting a farming business (land, financing, administrative, legal) and the pitfalls to avoid?

DIABY: The major difficulties faced pertain to:

• accessing funding because commercial banks do not have a good grasp of the agricultural sector and its a high risk sector.
• accessing land due to an outdated land law.

AGROHIVE: What is the current state of organic production in Côte d’Ivoire?

DIABY: At present, only a few agricultural enterprises have the ECOCERT certificate in organic farming. However, the market is making rapid progress towards organic farming. Indeed international NGOs and organizations are pushing cocoa and food crops farmers to produce organically.

International NGOs and local partners are currently working together to create an organic label. It will be based on IFOAM’s certification methodology, the “Participatory Guarantee System” (PGS). It is a locally focused quality assurance system. It certifies producers based on active participation of stakeholders and built on a foundation of trust, social networks and knowledge exchange.

AGROHIVE: What is the typology of agri-food companies?

DIABY: We have an hourglass-shaped grouping: several multinationals that dominate 90% of the market and small and very small companies that are nibbling away at the remaining market share.

AGROHIVE: What are the main countries involved in the international flow of agricultural products?

DIABY: Cocoa: the European Union and the USA. Asia (Vietnam, India, etc.)

AGROHIVE: What is the percentage of agricultural product flows with other African countries?

DIABY: Trade with neighboring countries is low, around 5%.

AGROHIVE: What are the main imported agricultural products?

DIABY: Rice and wheat.

AGROHIVE: What are the main agricultural exports?

DIABY: Cocoa products (cocoa beans, powder, mass and butter) Cashew nuts, coffee, natural rubber, palm oil, and cola nuts.

AGROHIVE: How does the emergence of digital tools support farmers in their activities?

DIABY: In Côte d’Ivoire, as in most West African countries, agriculture remains more or less archaic. The advent of digital tools is a breath of fresh air as it allows for traceability in internationalized supply chains. Beyond that, digital tools including drones, mobile applications (plot tracking and management, market-place and others) are increasingly used.

Although farmers are less literate and computer literate, there are a handful of young people who are interested in and contributing to the integration of IT tools into all parts of the agricultural value chains.

AGROHIVE: Agriculture and youth: how does the agricultural sector hope to attract young people?

DIABY: The young people who are interested today come in the hope that the tools used in agriculture in the past are over. To this end, we are gradually seeing the birth of start-ups led by young people who are focusing on agro-technology through the diversified use of irrigation systems, drones, web and mobile applications and other information and communication technologies.

*This publication has not been edited in order not to alter the original insights of the contributor.