Promoting Agricultural Value Chains
In the OIC Member Countries
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4. Agricultural value chain policies and enabling environments in the
OIC Member Countries
4.1 Policy diversity and policy dynamics in OIC countries
Nowadays, agricultural development in many OIC Member Countries does not receive due
prominence from policy makers given the low contribution of agriculture to GDP (Alpay,
2014). While agriculture continues to represent a major source of employment for many
countries in the OIC, its importance as revenue generator has declined over time, resulting in
decreasing attention by many governments.
However, before the liberalisation agenda of the 1980s and 1990s, governments in many OIC
countries were heavily involved in agriculture and assumed different roles, including the
provision of inputs, credit and marketing services. Domestic prices were often kept artificially
low to promote exports or they were set above world market prices to guarantee a minimum
price to producers. The results of these policies, however, were mostly poor because
government interventions were often ill-informed and poorly implemented. Subsequent
reform efforts implemented in the context of structural adjustment programmes, led to a sharp
decline or even collapse of many services previously provided, such as extension, input supply
and marketing, resulting in a general situation of underinvestment in public funding for
agriculture.
This broad assessment (Alpay, 2014) should not underestimate the significant diversity which
exists among OIC Member Countries, reflecting the heterogeneous role that agriculture
continues to play in their economic activity. Lower income countries, particularly in the
African region, tend to have a larger share of agriculture in their economies than high income
countries (see also Chapter 3). Natural resources used in agriculture, such as arable land, soil
and water resources, as well as the availability of non-agricultural natural resources, such as
oil and gas, also notably influence a country’s agricultural value chain policies. These
differences among the OIC Member Countries result in highly varied patterns of specialisation
and agricultural policies.
Across these differences, a broadly shared set of challenges is a common driver of agricultural
policies in the OIC Member Countries: assuring economic viability of the agricultural sector
and producing sufficient food to cater to the needs of the population (OECD, 2015).
4.2 Self-sufficiency as main policy focus in OIC countries
Recognising the strategic importance of producing food domestically to shield themselves
against the vulnerabilities of external sources, most OIC Member Countries pursue goals of
food self-sufficiency. Accordingly, the main crops produced in the OIC are staple foods
produced for domestic consumption and as feedstock for livestock. Several OIC countries are
large producers of wheat (e.g. Pakistan, Turkey, Iran, Kazakhstan, Egypt, Morocco and
Uzbekistan), barley (Turkey, Kazakhstan, Morocco), cassava (Nigeria, Indonesia, Mozambique,
Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Benin), maize (Indonesia, Nigeria), millet (Nigeria, Niger, Mali,
Burkina Faso, Chad, Senegal), potatoes (Bangladesh, Iran, Algeria, Egypt), rice (Indonesia,
Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt), and sorghum (Nigeria, Sudan, Burkina Faso, Niger). Livestock