Agriculture and Food Security
NIGER FACT SHEET
Niger regularly experiences low and variable rainfalls, land degradation, deforestation, and desertification. Most Nigeriens depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, and frequent floods, extended droughts, and increasingly unpredictable rainfall patterns in the region often lead to food and animal feed shortages. The resulting chronic food insecurity and a high prevalence of infectious diseases have led the country to record some of the highest malnutrition and mortality rates in the world.
According to the 2022 global nutrition report, 4.3 million Nigeriens need humanitarian assistance. Currently, two million are in acute need of food assistance, and this is forecast to jump to 2.9 million in the upcoming lean season which runs from June to August. 9.8 percent of Nigeriens are acutely malnourished, and 2.4 percent are severely malnourished. Approximately 45 percent of Nigerien children are chronically malnourished, with 5 percent stunted, and 11 percent wasted.
Our Work
USAID agriculture and food security programs are designed to spur more opportunities for employment, contribute to national food security and stability, and help people rise out of poverty and effectively manage recurring shocks and stresses. Our three main priorities are resilience and poverty alleviation, economic growth, and natural resource management.
USAID’s portfolio is organized around agriculture-driven economic growth that will promote resilience by increasing incomes and job creation all along the food system. All activities respond to USAID mandates for improved nutritional outcomes, gender, youth, and marginalized population inclusion, capacity development, climate-awareness, conflict-sensitivity, and localization. Niger is a U.S. government Feed the Future target country and implements the Global Food Security Strategy.
USAID also collaborates with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and is exploring potential follow-on activities in the areas of fertilizer sector reform, capacity development for the livestock sector, livestock markets, nutritious horticulture value chains and indigenous crops, integrated pest management, small scale irrigation, and support to the new groundwater authority. A political economy analysis of the food system and a hydro economic analysis for groundwater usage in Niger will inform future programming.
Agriculture
USAID supports Niger’s agriculture sector to focus on the most vulnerable. We work on several fronts: increased access to finance; more economic opportunities; improved natural resources; increased farm production; and better access to nutritious foods.
We work with farmer groups to improve the competitiveness and inclusiveness of three value chains: cowpeas (black-eyed peas), small ruminants (goats and sheep), and poultry.
Food Security
USAID reduces food insecurity through a combination of emergency humanitarian and development assistance. USAID’s Bureau of Humanitarian Affairs, in collaboration with other development activities under the Resilience in the Sahel-Enhanced II (RISE II) project, form the core of the food security program. USAID designed these projects in response to a pattern of repeated crises.
These crises have taken place over the past several decades because local populations do not have the means to prevent, go through, and recover from risks which are commonly referred to as shocks. Shock types vary but they typically include natural catastrophes such as floods, droughts, and storms, or man-made crises such as political unrest or violent extremism. The ability to prevent, go through, and rebound from shocks is called resilience. The RISE II project addresses the causes of people's and communities’ chronic vulnerability to shocks by increasing their resilience. USAID helps individuals and communities develop more and better ways to make a living and improve their overall health and nutrition.
Our Goals
- Improved productivity throughout the food system, including the livestock sector.
- Reduced vulnerability and need for humanitarian assistance.
- Increased climate-smart management of natural resources.
- Reduced food insecurity through increased food production and diversification, water resource management and governance.
- Improved security generally through improved livelihood opportunities for women and youth.
- Reduced malnutrition in target areas.
- Increased representation of women and youth in food and nutrition activities at community level.
Select List of USAID Agriculture and Resilience Programming
Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture, Association for the Revitalization of Livestock in Niger, Nigerien Association for the Revitalization of Local Initiatives (Karkara), Helen Keller Institute, Innovations for Poverty Action, 2020 – 2025; $29.1 million
The five-year USAID Yalwa activity strengthens the skills and abilities of farmers, producer organizations, agribusinesses, and rural households in the Maradi, Tillabéri, and Zinder regions of Niger to meet the growing demand for affordable, safe, and nutritious food. Yalwa means “fulfillment” or “blossoming” in the Hausa language. USAID Yalwa supports USAID’s regional Resilience in the Sahel Enhanced (RISE II) program, which helps citizens escape poverty and build resilience to natural, economic, and other shocks. Yalwa enhances performance market systems; increases the use of high-quality inputs and services; increases local consumption of nutritious, safe, and affordable foods, and promotes inclusive markets for women and youth.
The following programs and budgets are managed out of the USAID Sahel Regional Office in Senegal
USAID CATALYZE Finance for Resilience (F4R), Palladium, SINERGI SA; September 2020 - August 2025
$6.9 million
CATALYZE F4R is a support mechanism for USAID's partners to deploy blended finance solutions across various sectors in partner countries. CATALYZE connects finance and investment structures to companies of all sizes (micro, small, medium, and large) in the agricultural sector and with youth entrepreneurs in Niger. It is based on a "blended finance" approach (combining public and private funds) and uses the Pay-for-Results principle of providing performance incentive tools, such as results-based contracts and performance grants, to increase the mobilization of private funds and increase new investments in target sectors. The objective of the activity is to sustain growth, reduce poverty, and promote job creation in the Nigerien intervention zones of Maradi, Tillabéri, and Zinder.
West Africa Trade and Investment Hub, Creative Associates International, Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture, Connexus Corporation, Dalberg Global Development Advisors, Fraym Pragma Corporation September 2019 - September 2024
The West Africa Trade and Investment Hub is USAID’s flagship project designed to assist West African businesses to unlock their full potential and thrive. This trade and investment activity catalyzes sustainable economic growth and improves food security in the region by increasing competitiveness through building strategic partnerships with the private sector using a market-based and export promotional approach.
Terres Eau Vie, Winrock International, Tetra Tech; February 2019 - February 2024
$39 million (Burkina Faso and Niger)
This activity under RISE II creates resilience in rural communes in Maradi, Tillabéri, and Zinder by strengthening social and ecological systems. It focuses on improved water security, enhanced sustainable productive land use, and improved management of shocks, risks, and stresses, enabling recipients to pursue sustainable pathways out of poverty.
Building Resilience through Science and Satellite Data - SERVIR II West Africa, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Agrometeorology, Hydrology and Meteorology Regional Center
SERVIR is a joint initiative of NASA, USAID, and leading geospatial organizations, it is one of five regional hubs that connect space to village by helping developing countries use satellite data to address critical challenges in agriculture and food security, water resources, weather and climate, land use, and disaster prevention or management at local, national, and regional levels. It provides an early warning system for adverse climatic events, weather forecasting, and soil fertility mapping.
International Development Finance Corporation (DFC)
A DFC loan guarantee will help Orabank Niger, the country’s eighth-largest bank, increase lending to small and medium enterprises in the agriculture, livestock, and food value chain sectors, which currently account for just 1 percent of the bank’s portfolio. The guarantee will also help the bank address demand for Islamic finance and deploy more digital financial services for remote farmers. The loan guarantee represents the first-ever investment by DFC or OPIC in Niger, and advances DFC’s efforts to mobilize investment to the world’s poorest countries. DFC provides a loan portfolio guarantee for food systems lending. Guarantees are 50 percent of any default amount, with DFC and Orabank sharing the loss equally.
Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Legume Systems Research, Michigan State University
November 2019 - June 2023
The Legume Systems Innovation Lab is a five-year research capacity building development program that focuses on grain legumes in West and Southern Africa. It fosters dynamic, profitable, and environmentally sustainable approaches that contribute to resilience, productivity and better nutrition and economic opportunities. This is primarily an extension activity, using simple videos in local languages to teach good agronomic practices in the cowpea value chain.
CONTACT FOR MORE INFORMATION
USAID NIGER MISSION
Agriculture Office
Mission-Niamey-AGR@usaid.gov
USAID Niger