Togo Country Book

Last update: October 15, 2025

This page contains information about some of the data available in the FEWS NET Data Explorer (FDE) for Togo. This is not a comprehensive guide.

For information about using the filters and fields for specific domains in the FDE, see Choose a Data Domain .

Summary table

Country food security context

Statistical reporting units

Togo usually uses administrative units as their statistical reporting units.

Most of Togo’s statistics are reported at the Admin-1 région and/or Admin-2 préfecture levels.   

Admin 1: Région/Region, of which there are 6.

Admin 2: Préfecture/Prefecture of which there are 39. Maritime Region now has 6, Plateaux 12, Centrale 5, Kara 7, Savanes 7 and Grand Lomé 2. 

Admin 3: Communes/Municipalities, of which there were 233 as of 2024. Each prefecture has at least 2 municipalities.

Admin 4:  Canton.  In 2019, it was reported that there are approximately 394 cantons in the country.

Evolution of administrative and/or crop statistic reporting units

Regions: At the country’s independence in 1960, there were four first-level administrative regions in Togo: (from South to North) Maritime, Plateaux, Centrale and Savanes. In 1981, a fifth region, Kara, was added by splitting Savanes and Centrale. Sometime after 2022, the capital city, Lomé, became a de facto sixth region, splitting two prefectures away from Maritime Region to become the Autonomous District of Grand Lomé. 

Prefectures:  In the early 1980s, there were 22 prefectures (see Table x, below), and in 1995,  they increased to 30.  On December 3, 2009, five new prefectures were created for a total of 35.  On May 27, 2016, four new prefectures were created for a total of 39. The following table details the evolution of Togo Prefectures from 1981-2025.

Crop data

Explore our crop data .

View our documentation on using the Crop Domain .

Crop estimate data sources

Togo’s statistical data are produced by the National Institute for Economic Statistics and Demographic Studies (INSEED) under the supervision of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Prior to 2015, the INSEED was known as the Direction Générale de la Statistique et de la Comptabilité nationale (DGSCN).

Crop statistics are developed from annual crop assessments led, usually at the prefecture-level, by the Ministry of Agriculture (Direction des Statistiques Agricoles, de l’Informatique et de la Documentation, Ministere de l’Agriculture, de la Peche, des Ressources Animales, et de la Souveraineté Alimentaire).

Some of Togo’s historic and current crop statistics are found in digital versions of annual crop assessment reporting and in national and regional statistical yearbooks. Regional-level crop statistics are available for the 2014-2018 period at an African Development Bank-funded, Government of Togo-managed open-data portal (go to Annuaires → Economiques et Finances → Agriculture or Donnees → Agriculture). 

National-level results for the 2005-2022 period can be found in Togo’s annual agricultural yearbooks .

The Togo database of crop production found in the FDW covers the 1997 to 2020 period and has been drawn from regional statistical yearbooks that are available in the FDW.

The country’s annual crop statistics do not distinguish bi-modal small main-season or off-season production from Main season annual production.

Crop reporting units

Prefecture-level crop statistics in Togo are generally prepared annually at the prefectural, regional and then national level, using administrative boundaries.

Year and season definition

Year definitions

Togo’s annual cropping and statistical reporting cycle begins on January 1 and ends on December 31. 

Annual cropping cycles are generally referred to by a two-date notation (xxxx/yyyy), in which the planting and harvesting is carried out in the xxxx year, and the yyyy year is the marketing year. When a cropping year is referred to with one notation (e.g. xxxx) that refers to the year of planting and harvesting.

Seasons

Togo’s season dates are very similar to those for Benin and Ghana and even major parts of Nigeria, except where local features figure prominently (hills/mountains, bodies of water, settlement patterns, etc.). 

The country’s Main cropping season is generally considered to run March 15 - November 30, depending upon latitude, with zones in the North planting later and harvesting earlier (by September 30) than in the Center and South.

Prior to the annual commencement of the main season rains in late March or early April, heat and humidity move northward following the annual pattern of movement of West Africa’s principal climate driver, the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), and the rains follow. Sometime late in the normal season the ITCZ begins its annual southward retreat and the heat, humidity, and rains retreat with it.

Within this larger national cropping pattern, farmers in the more southerly parts of the country (especially in the Maritime and Plateaux regions) adapt locally to four micro-seasons, two of which are rainy and two of which are dry:  

• Large/grande rains: April - end of July

• Small/petite dry season: August - September

• Small/petite rains: September - November

• Main/grande dry season: December - March

Off-season agricultural production, usually in household gardens and/or irrigated fields, begins as the main-season rains begin to taper off and ends before next year’s main-season field clearing begins in March or April.

Primary crops

Maize is the principal food crop in Togo. Other important food crops, listed in order of the percentage of farmers cultivating them, include soybean, yams, cassava, rice and sorghum. The table below lists all crops found in the FDW crop statistic database for Togo. 

Production systems

Production system information (e.g. irrigated, commercial and small-farmer, etc) has generally not been provided in the country’s crop statistic reporting.

Crop statistics context

Area planted: Cropped area samples are geo-located and objectively measured with a GPS by agricultural agents deployed across the entire area of the country. 

Yield: Yield is weighed in harvested sample survey plots identified by crop and by zone. Total production is therefore based upon objectively-measured areas and yields established in crop-cutting and weighing operations, in conformity with national statistical norms, and international standards.

Methodology

Methods and Data processing: The method used is based upon standards set for the 2012 National Agricultural Census. The evaluation was carried out in three stages: census mapping, a basic module, and a supplementary module. The supplementary module, known as the census itself, was carried out using random sampling with a sample of 9,000 agricultural households distributed by region and prefecture within the census areas. To update the data collected, a permanent integrated agro-pastoral statistics system (SPE) has been set up to monitor a representative sample of 2,000 farms.

Sample:  In view of some sampling issues observed in recent years due to the weariness of some farmers and the absence of certain farms in the SPE sample, the DSID conducted an intercensal survey in February 2019 to build a new sample for estimating agricultural production. Thus, for the 2021-2022 agricultural season, the SPE covered a sample of two thousand one hundred and eighty (2,180) agricultural households spread across 545 agricultural enumeration areas (ZD), at a rate of four (04) households per ZD. The distribution of the sample by region is as follows: (i) Maritime: 460; (ii) Plateaux: 520; (iii) Central: 400; (iv) Kara: 400; and (v) Savanes: 400.

Questionnaires Four questionnaires (farm, plot, yield, livestock) were developed for data collection:

• The farm form covers variables such as farm characteristics, population, agricultural assets, etc.

• The plot form records parameters relating to the plot, in particular the crops planted, sowing dates, inputs used, how the plot is used, surface areas, etc.

• The yield form is used to record information on harvests from yield plots for an assessment of average yield by crop and by prefecture.

• The livestock form is used to make an inventory of the animals on the farm and to determine changes in livestock numbers.

An application is used to collect and synchronize data via smartphone on the DSAID (Direction des Statistiques Agricoles, de l’Informatique et de la Documentation) server. The data collected is cleaned, processed, and analyzed using SPSS, STATA, and Excel software.

Reports: The area data are those actually developed and measured at the level of the sample monitored. They are extrapolated at the level of each prefecture from the previously calculated survey weights. The final data for the campaign are calculated on the basis of all the yield data for the various crops and by level 2 administrative unit (prefecture).

With regard to cash crops (coffee and cocoa), a sample of two thousand (2,000) growers, including 1,000 coffee growers and 1,000 cocoa growers, was monitored annually to obtain data on planted areas, yields, and production. For cotton, statistical data are provided by the Nouvelle Société Cotonnière du Togo (NSCT), which has its own data collection system.