Niger Country Book

Last update: March 2026

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

For information about using the filters and fields for specific topics in the FDE, see Explore Data.

Summary table

Country food security context

Statistical reporting units

Niger usually uses administrative units as their statistical reporting units. There are generally three hierarchical levels of administrative divisions in Niger used for most national statistical reporting, described below. A fourth-level, Poste Administratif (Administrative Post) is rarely referenced.

Admin 1: Region/Région, of which there are currently seven (Agadez, Diffa, Dosso, Maradi, Tahoua, Tillabéri and Zinder). The capital, Niamey, is effectively treated as an eighth region. 

Admin 2: Department/Département, 74 in number, as of 2025. This includes four villes (cities of special status) - Niamey, Maradi, Zinder, and Tahoua - which are often treated as departments. 

Admin 3: Commune (urban or rural), 454 in number.

Admin 4: Administrative Post.

Evolution of Administrative Reporting Units

At the time of independence, Niger was divided into sixteen first-level (cercle) administration divisions: Agadez, Birni N'Konni, Dogondoutchi, Dosso, Filingué, Gouré, Madaoua, Magaria, Maradi, N'Guigmi, Niamey, Tahoua, Téra, Tessaoua, Tillabéri, and Zinder. Their capitals had the same names as the cercle. After independence, a 1961 territorial organization law created 31 second-level circonscriptions. The 16 colonial cercles continued to exist, and served as a level of administration above the circonscriptions. 

In 1964, a new law reorganized the country into departments (départements) and arrondissments (arrondissements), adopting this French administration naming system, in contrast to neighboring Mali, which retained the colonial cercles and regions. 

Since then, notable changes in the administrative units over time included:

• 1992: Conversion of Niamey Region into Tillaberi Region

• 1998: Separation of the community/city of Niamey from Tillaberi Region, with Niamey becoming a Capital District, roughly equivalent to a region.   

After the 5th Republic took over governance of the country in 1999, several laws were passed which progressively defined, and then implemented two related concepts of how the country is sub-divided:

1. How the central government administers and delivers services to the territories of the state (regions, departments, communes and, later, arrondissments).

2. How decentralized collectivities represent and govern themselves politically within the state (regions, communes, provinces, sultanates, tribes, and other collectivities [note, no departments]). 

The details and differences between the two are complex^[1] and in some cases still unclear. The former are generally used for most statistical reporting and are represented in the discussion below.

A major territorial reorganization of Niger's local administration, known informally as a decentralization process, was carried out through a series of laws passed from 1998 to 2005: 

• 1999: The Constitution (August 9) and Law n°98-032 (September 14) determined the statutes for Communautés Urbaines.

• August 10, 2001: Law n°2001-023, created a new hierarchy of Territorial Collectivities (collectivités territoriales) - regions, departments^[2] and two forms of commune (urban and rural).

• June 11, 2002:

  • Law n° 2002-017, determined the independent administration of Regions, Departments, and Communes, as well as their obligations and resources.

  • Law n° 2002-014, created the Communes and fixed their boundaries and seats.

In 2002, the new administrative structures were implemented. At that time, there were seven regions, one capital district (Niamey), 36 departments, and 265 communes^[3]. 

In 2011, a new law was passed that expanded the number of departments by 27, for a new total of 63. Table 1, below, displays Admin 2 evolution between 1972 and 2011 in a tabular format.

In 2019, legislation was passed which defined the need for the creation of several new departments, but no further action has been taken to implement this expansion.

Table 1: Evolution of R-type 2nd-level Reporting Units (1972-present)

Note: The 2 letter codes in parentheses represent the Admin 1 region for the table entry: AG = Agadez, DI = Diffa, DO = Dosso, MR = Maradi, NI = Niamey, TA = Tahoua, TI = Tillaberi, ZI = Zinder.

Crop data

Explore our crop data.

Crop estimate data sources

There is no comprehensive, official, online database of sub-national crop statistics for Niger. Official annual crop statistics are generally found in publications, the source, format, and contents of which vary widely over history. Copies of many of the original source documents are found in the FEWS NET Source Document repository. The earliest crop statistics in the FEWS NET Niger crop statistics database come from the 1980s and were first collected in the mid- to late-1990s by an early FEWS NET crop statistics collection initiative called Agro-Maps.

The most complete source of Nigerien crop statistics is found in two different series of annual yearbooks available at the Nigerien National Statistics Institute (INS) website. From the main menu, select Publications Statistiques > Publications Sectorielles and then search for the Ministere de l’Agriculture to access a variety of annual yearbooks (annuaires statistiques) containing crop statistics for as early as 2008. Most of these crop statistics are presented at Admin 1-level. 

From the main INS menu, select Publications Statistiques > Statistiques par Region to access a different collection of regional-level statistical yearbooks for each region, each containing Admin 2-level crop statistics for the 2009-present period. 

In more recent years (2008-present), the importance of dry season (off-season) irrigated crops was systematically recognized with the inclusion in some national surveys of horticultural irrigated crops (cultures irriguées). These do not include other large para-statal irrigated rice schemes (referred to as AHA, or Aménagements hydro-agricoles), most of which are found in and around the Niger River.  

An important source of annual crop statistics for the country has been the annual crop assessments carried out by the Niger Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with a variety of other national, regional and international partners. The earliest of these that has been located is from 2012 and can be found in the FEWS NET Source Document repository. The INS Publications Sectorielles source described above contains annual surveys from 2017 to the present.

A spot-check of the four different INS source documents described above showed that they appear to be consistent in their estimates. 

It appears that the INS did, at one point in the recent past, attempt to establish an on-line sub-national database for statistics, the Plateforme de Dialogue et de Communication sur le Secteur Rural, among which were crop statistics. Select variables for all five filters to access Admin 1-level crop data (area planted, yield, production) between 2010 and 2021. Funding provided for this activity under a Millenium Challenge Account apparently ended in 2024, and data available from the site are not available after 2021.  

Crop reporting units

In Niger, crop statistics have generally been reported by units that match the first two of the administrative units described above, currently called Regions and Departments.  

In the mid 1990s, crop reporting began to diverge from that administrative-based pattern when the four largest urban centers (Niamey, Zinder, Maradi and Tahoua) and some of the larger second-tier urban settlements (from the perspective of their population size – the Commune d’Agadez, Commune de Diffa, Commune de Dosso, and Commune de Tillaberi) began reporting separately from the departments in which they were located. In 2007, several of the arrondissments of Niamey also began separate reporting of their cropping.

For the purposes of FEWS NET’s Niger crop statistics R-type crop statistic reporting unit FNIDs were assigned to these units and integrated into annual crop boundary sets for 1972, 1992, 2002 and 2012. 

The first-level R crop reporting unit level corresponds to the Admin 1-level in all cases, and includes crop statistics for all seven regions and the Niamey capital region. The second-level R reporting unit now includes, depending upon the year, all departments, urban centers with special status (the 4 large urban villes), and 30+ urban communes. In recent years, some ville reporting (in Zinder, Maradi and Tahoua) has been expanded using urban arrondissment-level reporting.  

Year and season definition

Year definition

In a pattern that is similar to other Sahelian countries, Niger often refers to its cropping year and crop statistics using both a single-year format (e.g. 2024), and a two-year format (e.g. 2024/2025), as in title of the following 2024 harvest report: “Rapport d'évaluation de la campagne agricole d'hivernage 2024 et Perspectives Alimentaires 2024/2025” (“Evaluation of the 2024 main-season crop and food [security] perspectives for 2024/2025”). This indicates that the 2024 and 2024/2025 cropping year includes the main season beginning in approximately June of 2024, running through the main season harvest of September/October 2024, and a second round of irrigated cropping during the dry season which follows, between October 2024 and the onset of the next main season in May 2025.  In FEWS NET terms, this means the cropping year is start-aligned. 

Season definitions

The country extends north and south into three very different agro-ecological zones (Sudanian, Sahelian, Saharan) with differing climatic and cropping profiles, and the season and cropping activity start and end dates given below are strongly influenced by one’s location on this north-south gradient.  

Niger has a single short rainy season between June and September, and a dry season (saison seche), or off-season (hors-saison), from October through May of the following year. Because of Niger’s growing use of small- and large-scale irrigation, the cropping year is comprised of multiple weather and irrigation-related cropping periods, listed in Table 2 below. 

Table 2: Seasonal definitions and cropping periods

As described above, the annual cropping cycle is generally considered to run between rainfed crop preparations which may begin as early as May, prior to the rains, through harvests in September-October, and include horticultural (irrigated) crops which may be planted between June and October, often end with harvests before February of the next year, or later, if irrigation sources are available (see Figure 1). 

Figure 1: Seasonal definitions and cropping period example for 2024/2025

Horticultural cropping, a term used in Niger to refer to small-scale irrigated cropping^[4] may be carried out during the main rains, with irrigation supplementing rainfall, and after the rains using only irrigation, throughout at least the colder part of the dry season (October through February). 

The principal farming activities in Niger typically follow this schedule: 

• May through mid-July: Fields are prepared before the first rains arrive and crops are sown.

• June through September: Re-planting, if needed, and weeding during the main rains. 

• September through October: Millet and sorghum and other crops are harvested.

• November: Irrigated and flood-recession crops are sown, to be harvested as late as May in the following year.

Primary crops

Niger's most important staple crops are, in order of area sown are: millet (36% of all sown areas, 2020-2024), sorghum (21%), rice (.18%), and maize (.14%). Outside of niébé (cowpea) production (often inter-cropped with millet or sorghum, 34% of area sown), which is both consumed locally and also exported, primarily to Nigeria, Niger’s most important commercial crop is groundnuts.

A notable recent change in the country’s rainfed crop production systems has been the large-scale expansion in planting of the nitrogen-fixing niébé bean. It is inter-cropped in existing millet and sorghum fields, giving small farmers a new source of protein in their diet, improving the soil characteristics, and providing the opportunity to sell surplus production to the massive Hausa-area markets just south of the country’s border with Nigeria.

Another fairly recent introduction to the Sahel and a new highly impactful food security-important crop in Niger is the moringa (Moringa oleifera), a fast-growing drought-tolerant tree that can be both consumed by humans and used as animal fodder, and begins production in the same year it is planted. Although it is typically not covered in annual departmental crop evaluations, in 2024 its planted area was approaching that of maize in Niger.   

The Nigerien crops for which statistics are available in the FEWS NET Data Warehouse include those in the following table:    

Table 3: Crops present in the FEWS NET Niger crop database

Production systems

Nigerien crop statistics generally carry little crop production system (PS) information (e.g. small-farmer, commercial, etc.), because there is very little variation in the ways most farming is carried out. Early 20th century colonial efforts to encourage the country’s indigenous farmers to grow both groundnuts and cotton as cash crops met limited success, making almost all of the country’s agricultural production rainfed and only intended for household consumption purposes. Niger’s production systems include:

1. Rainfed (PS): Most of the country’s agricultural production, and especially its principal staple crops, millet and sorghum, is rainfed in nature. Rainfed drought-tolerant millet and sorghum crops are the dominant crops, grown in mono-cultures with limited tools and inputs, and as the rainy season goes, so goes national food production.

2. Horticulture (PS): After the devastating multi-year drought of 1969-1973, the only viable option seen to increase the country’s ability to feed itself, at-scale, was to utilize Niger’s extensive groundwater and temporary seasonal water sources, especially in off-season (dry season) cropping. A major emphasis was then put on developing off-season horticultural production using small-scall irrigation methods. There are major differences in the type and source of water used in Niger to produce the horticultural crops. The three main types include:

   1. Flood recession gardening around small bodies of water, (mares in French), that are filled during the rains and then progressively dry-out after the rainy season. These are generally located in the southern-most and best-watered agricultural areas. 

   2. Garden production fed by shallow wells dug in vast, ancient fossil river valleys, which thousands of years ago formed major tributaries of the Niger River. Three in particular (the Dallol Bosso, the Dallol Maouri, and the Dallol Foga), have generally predictable flows of year-round ground water at less than 10 meters of depth, and are now used to irrigate and produce large quantities of off-season crops (legumes, vegetables, roots, spices, and small quantities of wheat and sorghum). 

   3. A third type of horticultural crop production, not as widespread as the first two, consists of very small, riverside motorpump-fed gardening. This type is different from the much larger, generally rice-producing irrigation schemes established in and near the Niger River, described below.

3. Managed irrigation scheme (AHA) PS: Approximately 85 managed AHA (Aménagements hydro-agricoles) irrigation schemes occupy about 16,000 hectares for rice and garden production, largely in or near the Niger River. Managed by the National Office of Hydro-Agricultural Facilities (Office National des Aménagements hydro-agricoles), it is difficult to establish an objective baseline for crop production from these schemes. In some years, it is likely that Horticultural Crop Surveys include estimates from some larger AHA schemes, but perhaps not for others.   

Crop statistics context

Admin 2-level Nigerien crop statistics present in the FEWS NET Data Warehouse cover the 1980-present period. Crop statistics at the Admin 1 and 2-levels for the large AHA rice schemes have been difficult to find and represent a priority for further collection. In some annual harvest assessment reports, AHA (or ONAHA) harvest results have been added into the rainfed rice estimates.

Where irrigation sources permit, many crops, other than millet, may be grown during both the rainy and dry seasons. In multiple cases, two annual estimates of greatly varying estimates of area planted and yield may be presented for one crop in one crop reporting unit. These should normally be interpreted as one estimate for the rainfed crop (perhaps supplemented with irrigation), and the other for an irrigated-only crop. In most cases, the irrigated crop will have a significantly higher yield than the rainfed crop.   

From 1980 to approximately 2008, annual crop surveys generally focused only on rainfed crops, but it is possible that some (partly) irrigated crops (e.g. wheat, niébé, manioc, etc.) were included in those surveys and identified as rainfed only. 

Methodology

In Niger, annual surveys of agricultural production are called Enquêtes sur la Prévision et l’Estimation de Récoltes, or Forecast and Estimation of Harvest Surveys (EPER). In brief, EPER surveys carried out by the national and regional offices of the Ministry of Agriculture, follow a method and procedures that are common to most household surveys in Niger.  

An EPER’s principal outputs are two: 

• A harvest forecast in October which informs the initial expected national cereal balance and early warning of national food security conditions

• An analysis of the nation’s production of the principal staple cereal crops. 

Note that EPER surveys focus on rainfed crops, and do not normally consider nor estimate the nation’s major horticultural food production sector, driven by small-scale irrigation activities. As well, the EPER does not enumerate the growing large-scale rice production schemes (AHA), most of which are found along the banks of the Niger River.

Details of the procedures and methods used by the EPER are provided in a publication compiled by the National Statistical Institute (INE) entitled “Manuel de Méthodologies” Methodology Manual, Section 1.6, and in the FEWS NET source document repository.   

[1] See, for example, https://www.foncier-developpement.fr/wp-content/uploads/Cadre-juridique-institutionnel-NIGER-VF.pdf#:~:text=Art.%203%20Loi%20n%C2%B0%202008%2D42,de%20la%20R%C3%A9publique%20du%20Niger

[2] This would result, confusingly, in the former Departments becoming known as Regions, and former Arrondissments being renamed Departments.

[3] Two other lower-level units - cantons (122 in number) and groupements (81) - cover all areas not covered by urban communes (population over 10,000) or rural communes (population under 10,000). These are governed by the Department, whereas Communes have (since 1999) elected councils and mayors. Additional semi-autonomous and/or traditional sub-divisions include provinces, sultanates, and tribes (tribus).

[4] Other related terms include irrigated crops (cultures irriguées), and flood recession cropping (cultures de décrues). None of these terms refer to Niger’s large-scale AHA (aménagements hydro-agricoles) rice production schemes.