(Ecofin Agency) - According to recent forecasts from Mali’s ministry of agriculture, the country’s rice output for the 2017-18 season should reach 3 million metric tons, Reuters reports. This represents an 8% increase compared to the output of the previous season (2.78 million Mt).

Namory Diabate, the head of the statistics service at the ministry, said the improvement in output forecast, is partly due to an increase of rice-growing areas. These should stand around 950,000 hectares.

On another side, the improvement is explained by a greater commitment of the government toward the sector. This includes efforts to boost irrigation, knowingly through the distribution of motorized water pumps and the provision of new varieties of rice to farmers.

Second producer of rice in West Africa behind Nigeria, Mali had a surplus of 535,448 metric tons of the crop in the 2016-17 season, according to the ministry of agriculture.

Let’s recall that in Mali, the rice season includes a production phase which goes from May to October and a commercialization phase which goes from October to March.

Espoir Olodo