Agriculture
Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...
is the primary economic activity of a majority of
Niger
Niger, officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is a unitary state Geography of Niger#Political geography, bordered by Libya to the Libya–Niger border, north-east, Chad to the Chad–Niger border, east ...
's 17 million citizens.

The agricultural economy is based largely upon internal markets, subsistence agriculture, and the export of raw commodities: food stuffs and cattle to neighbors.
Niger
Niger, officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is a unitary state Geography of Niger#Political geography, bordered by Libya to the Libya–Niger border, north-east, Chad to the Chad–Niger border, east ...
, a landlocked
Sub-Sahara
Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...
African nation, over the past two decades has consistently been ranked near or at the bottom of worldwide indexes of the
Human development index
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistical composite index of life expectancy, Education Index, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income i ...
,
GDP
Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the total market value of all the final goods and services produced and rendered in a specific time period by a country or countries. GDP is often used to measure the economic performance o ...
, and per capita income. Economic activity centres on subsistence agriculture, animal husbandry, re-export trade, and export of
uranium
Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...
. The 50% devaluation of the West African CFA franc in January 1994 boosted exports of
livestock
Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...
,
cowpea
The cowpea (''Vigna unguiculata'') is an annual herbaceous legume from the genus '' Vigna''. Its tolerance for sandy soil and low rainfall have made it an important crop in the semiarid regions across Africa and Asia. It requires very few inpu ...
s,
onion
An onion (''Allium cepa'' , from Latin ), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus '' Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion which was classifie ...
s, and the products of Niger's small
cotton
Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...
industry. Exports of cattle to neighboring
Nigeria
Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...
, as well as
groundnuts and their oil remain the primary non-mineral exports.
[Background Notes for Niger: January 2009]
Bureau of African Affairs, United States State Department. Retrieved 2009-02-26. Portions of the "Economy" section are here used verbatim, as this document is in the public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...
.
Overall economy
Niger's economy is based largely on
subsistence crop
A subsistence economy is an economy directed to basic subsistence (the provision of food, clothing and shelter) rather than to the market.
Definition
"Subsistence" is understood as supporting oneself and family at a minimum level. Basic subsiste ...
s, livestock, and some of the world's largest uranium deposits.
Drought
A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, ...
cycles,
desertification
Desertification is a type of gradual land degradation of Soil fertility, fertile land into arid desert due to a combination of natural processes and human activities.
The immediate cause of desertification is the loss of most vegetation. This i ...
, a 3.4% population growth rate and the drop in world demand for uranium have undercut an already marginal economy.
Traditional subsistence farming, herding, small trading, and informal markets dominate an economy that generates few formal sector jobs. Between 1988 and 1995 28% to 30% of the total economy of Niger was in the unregulated
Informal sector
An informal economy (informal sector or grey economy) is the part of any economy that is neither taxed nor monitored by any form of government. Although the informal sector makes up a significant portion of the economies in developing countri ...
, including small and even large scale rural and urban production, transport and services. Current GDP per capita is very low by world standards, in part explained through the involvement of a majority of the population in very
small-scale agriculture
A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technolo ...
, which generates little monetary exchange.
Geography
A majority of Niger's population rural residents engaged in crop tending are clustered in the south centre and south west of the nation, in those areas (the
Sahel
The Sahel region (; ), or Sahelian acacia savanna, is a Biogeography, biogeographical region in Africa. It is the Ecotone, transition zone between the more humid Sudanian savannas to its south and the drier Sahara to the north. The Sahel has a ...
) which can expect to receive between 300mm to 600mm of rainfall annually. A small area in the southern tip of the nation, surrounding
Gaya
Gaya may refer to:
Geography Czech Republic
*Kyjov, a town called Gaya in German and Latin
Guinea
* Gaya or Gayah, a town
India
*Gaya, India, a city in Bihar
**Gaya Airport
*Bodh Gaya, a town in Bihar near Gaya
*Gaya district, Bihar
Niger
*G ...
can expect to receive 700mm to 900mm or rainfall. Northern areas which support crops, such as the southern portions of the
Aïr Massif and the
Kaouar oasis rely upon oases and a slight increase in rainfall due to mountain effects. Large portions of the northwest and far east of the nation, while within the
Sahara desert
The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...
, see just enough seasonal rainfall to support semi-nomadic animal husbandry. The populations of these areas, mostly
Tuareg
The Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym, depending on variety: ''Imuhaɣ'', ''Imušaɣ'', ''Imašeɣăn'' or ''Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group, traditionally nomadic pastoralists, who principally inhabit th ...
,
Wodaabe
The Wodaabe (, , ''𞤏𞤮𞤯𞤢𞥄𞤩𞤫'') is a name that is used to designate a subgroup of the Fula ethnic group who are traditionally nomadic and found primarily in Niger and Chad. All Wodaabe people should not be mistaken as Mbororo ...
-
Fula
Fula may refer to:
*Fula people (or Fulani, Fulɓe)
*Fula language (or Pulaar, Fulfulde, Fulani)
**The Fula variety known as the Pulaar language
**The Fula variety known as the Pular language
**The Fula variety known as Maasina Fulfulde
*Fula alpha ...
, and
Toubou
The Toubou or Tubu (from Old Tebu, meaning "rock people") are an ethnic group native to the Tibesti Mountains that inhabit the central Sahara in northern Chad, southern Libya, northeastern Niger, and northwestern Sudan. They live either as her ...
, practise
Transhumance
Transhumance is a type of pastoralism or Nomad, nomadism, a seasonal movement of livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions (''vertical transhumance''), it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and low ...
: traveling south to pasture and sell animals in the dry season, north into the Sahara in the brief rainy season, while maintaining settled communities along these routes.
Agriculture production
Niger's agricultural and livestock sectors are the mainstay of all but 18% of the population.
Fourteen percent of Niger's GDP is generated by livestock production (camels, goats, sheep and cattle), said to support 29% of the population. Thus 53% of the population is actively involved in crop production.
The 15% of Niger's land that is arable is found mainly along its southern border with Nigeria.
Pearl millet
Pearl millet (''Cenchrus americanus'', commonly known as the synonym ''Pennisetum glaucum'') is the most widely grown type of millet. It has been grown in Africa and the Indian subcontinent since prehistoric times. The center of diversity, and ...
, sorghum, and cassava are Niger's principal rain-fed subsistence crops. Irrigated rice for internal consumption, while expensive, has, since the devaluation of the CFA franc, sold for below the price of imported rice, encouraging additional production. Cowpeas and onions are grown for commercial export, as are small quantities of garlic, peppers, potatoes, and wheat.
Drought and environmental degradation
Rainfall varies and when insufficient, Niger has difficulty feeding its population and must rely on grain purchases and food aid to meet food requirements.
Rains, as in much of the
Sahel
The Sahel region (; ), or Sahelian acacia savanna, is a Biogeography, biogeographical region in Africa. It is the Ecotone, transition zone between the more humid Sudanian savannas to its south and the drier Sahara to the north. The Sahel has a ...
, have been marked by annual variability. This has been especially true in the 20th century, with the
most severe drought on record beginning in the late 1960s and lasting, with one break, well into the 1980s. The long-term effect of this, especially to
pastoralist populations remains in the 21st century, with those communities which rely upon cattle, sheep, and camels husbandry losing entire herds more than once during this period. Recent rains remain variable. For instance, the rains in 2000 were not good, those in 2001 were plentiful and well distributed.
Food shortfalls have also been caused by other factors. Market prices driven up by
drought
A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, ...
and a
plague of
desert locust
The desert locust (''Schistocerca gregaria'') is a species of locust, a periodically swarming, short-horned grasshopper in the family Acrididae. They are found primarily in the deserts and dry areas of northern and eastern Africa, Arabia, and ...
in 2005–2006 caused
a major food crisis in parts of the nation.
Shortage of good farmland has led to a number of innovations to farm marginal, often
laterite
Laterite is a soil type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by intensive and prolo ...
soils and soil degraded by
overfarming
Overexploitation, also called overharvesting or ecological overshoot, refers to harvesting a renewable resource to the point of diminishing returns. Continued overexploitation can lead to the destruction of the resource, as it will be unable to ...
, wind,
desertification
Desertification is a type of gradual land degradation of Soil fertility, fertile land into arid desert due to a combination of natural processes and human activities.
The immediate cause of desertification is the loss of most vegetation. This i ...
, and drought. Women in particular are often given poor plots of land (in inherited sections known as "''Gamana''") to garden, and have developed specific crops for poor soil and water conditions. These typically include ocra and malahiya. External organisations have tried introducing alternative crops, such as the fruit of the ''
Ziziphus mauritiana
''Ziziphus mauritiana'', also known as Indian jujube, Indian plum, Chinese date, Chinese apple, ber and dunks is a tropical fruit tree species belonging to the family Rhamnaceae. It is often confused with the closely related jujube, Chinese ju ...
'' tree ("''Indian Jujube''", marketed by the
(
ICRISAT
The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is an international organisation which conducts agricultural research for rural development, headquartered in Patancheru, Hyderabad, Telangana, India, with several ...
) under the name of "''Pomme du Sahel''" or Sahel Apple) and the leaves and seeds of the
Moringa oleifera
''Moringa oleifera'' is a short-lived, fast-growing, drought-resistant tree of the family Moringaceae, native to northern India and used extensively in South Asia, South and Southeast Asia. Common names include moringa, drumstick tree (from th ...
. Farmers use specialty water conservation techniques, "water microcatchments" or planting pits known as ''zai holes'', planting of crops among certain trees, planting in raised beds,
drip irrigation
Drip irrigation or trickle irrigation is a type of micro-irrigation system that has the potential to save water and nutrients by allowing water to drip slowly to the roots of plants, either from above the soil surface or buried below the surfac ...
, and usage of water collected in the natural stone bottomed low areas common in the south east of the nation. This approach has been termed the
Bioreclamation of Degraded Lands.
Market effects
While Nigerien farmers are often dependent on the agricultural market for portions of their production and consumption, much of Nigerien farming is
subsistence agriculture
Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow crops on smallholdings to meet the needs of themselves and their families. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements. Planting decisions occu ...
outside the marketplace.
The 2006
Human Development Index
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistical composite index of life expectancy, Education Index, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income i ...
ranked Niger sixth from worst in the world, with a HDI of 0.370:
174 of 179 nations.
Groundnuts, and to a lesser degree
Cotton
Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...
, introduced by former colonial power France in the 1930s and 1950s respectively, account for most of the world market for Nigerien industrial agriculture. Prior to the mass exploitation of uranium in the early 1970s, groundnut oil was the largest Nigerien export by worth.
External trade and investment in agriculture
Of Niger's exports, foreign exchange earnings from livestock, although difficult to quantify, are second only to those from uranium. Actual exports far exceed official statistics, which often fail to detect large herds of animals informally crossing into Nigeria. Some hides and skins are exported and some are transformed into handicrafts.
Hausa
Hausa may refer to:
* Hausa people, an ethnic group of West Africa
* Hausa language, spoken in West Africa
* Hausa Kingdoms, a historical collection of Hausa city-states
* Hausa (horse) or Dongola horse, an African breed of riding horse
See also
...
areas in the south center of the nation are especially known for their leather industries.
Zinder
Zinder (locally, ''Damagaram''), formerly also spelled Sinder, is the third largest city in Niger, with a population of 235,605 as by the 2012 census. It is situated east of the capital Niamey and north of the Nigerian city of Kano.
History ...
and
Maradi are two foci of leatherwork and trade.
See also
*
Economy of Niger
The gross domestic product (GDP) of Niger was $16.617 billion US dollars in 2023, according to official data from the World Bank. This data is based largely on internal markets, subsistence agriculture, and the export of raw commodities: foodstuff ...
*
Sahel drought
The Sahel region of Africa has long experienced a series of historic droughts, dating back to at least the 17th century. The Sahel region is a climate zone sandwiched between the Sudanian Savanna to the south and the Sahara desert to the north, ...
*
2005–06 Niger food crisis
References
External links
Institut de Recherche pour le Développement au Niger French government development office in Niger.
United Kingdom Department of International Development:NigerCanadian International Development Agency:NigerThe World Bank, Niger overview and resourcesWest African Agricultural Market Observer/Observatoire du Marché Agricole (RESIMAO) a project of the West-African Market Information Network (WAMIS-NET), provides live market and commodity prices from fifty seven regional and local public agricultural markets across Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Niger, Mali, Senegal, Togo, and Nigeria. Sixty commodities are tracked weekly. The project is run by the Benin Ministry of Agriculture, and a number of European, African, and United Nations agencies.
OECD / AEO 2007 Niger country study
{{Africa topic, Agriculture in