Food Policy 24 (1999) 465–478 www.elsevier.com/locate/foodpol Effects of the CFA franc devaluation on urban food consumption in West Africa: overview and cross-country comparisons Bocar Diagana a,b , Francis Akinde `s c , Kimseyinga Savadogo d , Thomas Reardon a,* , John Staatz a a Michigan State University, MI, USA b Institut Senegalais de Recherches Agricoles, Senegal c Universite ´ de Bouake ´ and Institut de Recherche pour le De ´veloppement (ex-ORSTOM), Bouake ´, Co ˆte d’Ivoire d Universite ´ de Ouagadougou, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso Abstract This article summarizes research and policy questions, and research methods and findings of four case studies of the impacts of the 1994 CFA franc devaluation in West Africa on urban food consumption. The case studies are household surveys from Burkina Faso, Co ˆte d’Ivoire, Mali, and Senegal. The research showed, in general, that, comparing food consump- tion patterns after the devaluation with those before, that: (1) total cereal intake fell, especially for the poorest; (2) the intake of imported rice held steady; (3) the intake of domestic coarse grains (millet, maize, sorghum) did not rise, except for an increase in maize intake in Burkina Faso; (4) only in Mali was there a significant shift to domestic rice; (5) imported wheat intake dropped; (6) roots, tuber and plantain consumption did not receive a boost; (7) there was an alarming “de-diversification” of the diet, especially for the poorest, with reductions in meat, edible oils, and vegetables/fruit, as well as imported milk; there was, however, some increase in domestic oils/butters consumption; (8) there was some “individualization” of consumption patterns with increased importance of the informal restaurant sector. The most striking results in the context of the policy debate are that cereal intake fell, and that the (expected) shift from imported rice to local coarse grains did not occur. The lack of such a shift is explainable in terms of the lackluster supply response of the coarse grain sectors, and the resilience of rice demand based on its convenience of processing and preparation for the urban consumer. These results together imply: (1) the economics and technology of agro-processing of coarse * Corresponding author. Address for correspondence: Department of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, 48824 USA. 0306-9192/99/$ - see front matter  1999 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII:S0306-9192(99)00060-3