ABSTRACT
The productivity of the agricultural sector in West Africa remains relatively low, mainly because of low and erratic rainfall, the absence of market incentives and increased competition due to trade liberalization, leading to an inability of farmers to replenish sufficiently exported nutrients from the farm. Forced by the need to produce more staple crops for a growing population, farm households abandoned the once stable system of shifting cultivation, reduced fallow and expanded the cultivated area to more fragile soil types. The net effect is that soil fertility levels in the region, are historically low and declining.
