ABIDJAN — Ivory Coast aims to become the rice bowl of West Africa as it ramps up production and processing of the regional staple food with an eye on beginning exports in 2018 and generating more than a million jobs, a government official said.

In the midst of an economic revival after years of political turmoil ended with a brief civil war in 2011, the country better known as the world’s biggest cocoa producer is investing about $4 billion as part of a program to diversify its agricultural sector and create jobs.

A man works in a rice field in Nanan, Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast, Sept. 27, 2014. Under its rice programme, the government has signed investment agreements with foreign companies including France’s Louis Dreyfus Commodities, Algeria’s Cevital, Export Trading Group of Singapore and Switzerland’s Ameropa.
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