**Acknowledegments**

*Regional Development in Africa*

food security in West Africa.

production chain.

recommendations:

**7. Recommendations**

agriculture.

a strategy that can be sustained.

trend is made possible partly because of disincentive to continue production which is linked to the WTO's policy of discouraging government's supports and incentives to food producers in developing countries. The resultant effect is dumping of food products by the industrialized countries on West African markets which undermines local food industries and drives them out of production because of uncompetitive prices these foreign products offer. This has serious implications for food security in the subregion. On the basis of the foregoing, the paper concludes that the WTO's trade liberalization policy on agriculture has not improved food security in the West African subregion. In fact, the policy has actually undermined

Thus, the paper established that the WTO trade liberalization policy on agriculture encourages food self-reliance/food importation as against food selfsufficiency/domestic production. As a result of this, most West African countries that have acceded to the WTO agreement tend to pursue food self-reliance strategies as against food self-sufficiency strategies, thereby relying on food imports that expose them to the vagaries of international food price hikes. Finally, the paper also established that against WTO rules, developed countries, especially the United States and European Union, still give export subsidies and domestic supports to their farmers. These encourage dumping of the excess products on developing countries at relatively cheaper prices. It also harms domestic production and reduces the income of domestic farmers and other investors in the food

On the basis of the findings, the study puts forward the following

i.West African countries should aim at food self-sufficiency instead of food self-reliance. A key advantage of a national food self-sufficiency strategy is that it ensures that the country depends less on the export policies of other countries, especially for important basic staples. The attention of this strategy is focused on the agricultural sector and it has the capacity to change the age-long underinvestment in agricultural production in most West African countries. Additionally, since agriculture provides employment for the majority of the active population in West Africa and is a major source of income for the majority of people, it follows that the strategy can promote overall development if they encourage increased productive investment in

ii.As a corollary to the above, investments in the agricultural sector that will increase food availability and strengthen the food production system in West Africa should be given immediate priority by governments of West African countries, especially the innovation of family/smallholder farming. Reliance on international trade that is obviously biased against their food needs is not

iii.West African countries, and indeed, all developing countries should move for the reform of the WTO agreements in general and the Agreement on Agriculture in particular, especially market access of West African commodities into developed countries' markets. Greater market access can be achieved through further reduction of developed country tariffs in order to

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The authors wish to acknowledge the African Heritage Institution, Enugu, Nigeria, for allowing the use of its library and space by the authors during the course of this research.
