Office du Niger : Ensuring Food Security for Mali

Located in the heart of Mali, the Office
du Niger (ON) is one of the oldest and largest irrigation
schemes in Sub-Saharan Africa. The French, who began the
scheme in 1932, planned on developing about 1,000,000
hectares over a period of 50 years. The original objectives
were to: 1) supply the French textile industry with a large
share of its needs in cotton; and 2) significantly
contribute to food security for the whole Sahelian region of
the French Empire with a modern and commercial rice
production system. In short, the ON had drained huge public
resources with little result. From the mid-1970s, the ON
focused sharply on developing the area into a major national
and regional rice-producing resource.