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Abstract
West Africa countries in the Sahel zone are worried about increases in their imports of cereals, which according to some slows the development of their national agricultures. A proposal for a Regional Protected Area for Cereals (RPAC) was made in a symposium (Mindelo, 1986), and this paper attempts to lay out the key issues raised. The main question is to determine whether it is possible to find a price for rice that would be incentive enough for peasants in the region, and affordable to consumers. But it is also necessary to prompt these farmers to increase their total supply of cereals, cash-crops to providce the States with foreign exchange, and animal products. Finally, the critical problem of sharing out the eventual benefits of the RPAC must be solved.