Malaria and Agricultural Production: Are There Bidirectional Effects? The Case of Coffee and Cocoa in Côte d'Ivoire

The sectors of coffee and cocoa in Côte d?Ivoire represented, before the political crisis, approximately 15% of the GDP and 40% of exports. The production zone of these two crops is the forest, which is a malaria endemic area. The cultivation of these crops is less constraining than that of the food crops such as rice or yam, which need to be replanted each year. However, the maintenance of the ground and trees and pest management are major tasks contributing to high yields. But, by increasing the work time in fields, they also expose farmers to mosquito bites and, as a consequence, to the risk of malaria. Farmers in this area also grow food crops, and more specifically rice, as rain cultivation crops, but some also cultivate these crops in irrigated lowland. The aim of this paper is twofold: first of all, to evaluate the role of malaria in coffee and cocoa production; secondly, to assess the role of the rice production scheme on malaria transmission. Three functions are therefore estimated: the production of coffee, the production of cocoa, and the production of health. Data were collected during a survey carried out on 750 households (21 villages) in the forest area. The main results show that malaria has no effect on coffee and cocoa production and that lowland irrigated rice cultivation does not constitute a risk factor for malaria transmission. JEL Classification: I12, O13.