Resource information
Niger, owing to its climatic,
institutional, livelihood, economic, and environmental
context, is one of the most vulnerable countries of the
world. Poverty is pervasive in Niger and it ranks low on
almost all the human development indicators. Agriculture is
the most important sector of Niger's economy and
accounts for over 40 percent of national gross domestic
product (GDP) and is the principle source of livelihood for
over 80 percent of the country's population. The
performance of the agricultural sector, however, due to its
high exposure to risks, is very volatile. Niger has
experienced multiple shocks, largely induced by agricultural
risks over the past 30 years, which impose high welfare cost
in terms of food availability, food affordability, and
malnutrition. It also adversely affects household incomes,
performance of the agricultural sector, the
government's fiscal balance, and the growth rate of
Niger's economy. Niger is a case of living perpetually
with risk, thus more emphasis on long-term structural
solutions, rather than short-term quick fixes, is required
to improve the resilience of the agricultural sector.
Designing and implementing a comprehensive agricultural risk
management strategy will require sustained and substantial
financial investments, shifting the focus from short-term
crisis response to long-term risk management, streamlining
disparate donor investments and isolated interventions
toward the core problem, supporting decentralized community,
and farm-level decision making, integrating agricultural
risk management into the existing development frameworks,
prioritizing agricultural risks into government and donor
strategies, and focusing on implementation.
