The objective of this study is to identify the determinants of households’ food insecurity in rural areas in Mali, ranked among the most exposed to this phenomenon. The study used data from the national food security and nutritional survey in March 2016. The estimation of the econometric logit model by the maximum likelihood method revealed that regional location, age of household head, household size, level of education of the household head, welfare index and incomes’ diversification sources are the main determinants of households’ food insecurity in a rural area in Mali. The analysis shows that age of household head, size of household and practical of recession cropping affect positively food insecurity while the educational level of household head, welfare index and incomes ’diversification sources affect negatively food insecurity. These determinants are pillars on which policy maker might rely to reduce food insecurity. Therefore, it is desirable for government to orientate more the food insecurity fight programs towards the most affected regions, to prioritize households head with advanced age and those whose size is high, and promote recession cropping during the food insecurity fight plan, improve household education level, promote the household’s welfare and sensitize the households to diversify the sources of their income.

This paper uses data from the National Surveys" data from the Living Standards Measurement Study and the Integrated Surveys on Agriculture for Mali of 2014 to analyze socioeconomic , pedological and climate determinants of producers" technical efficiency in Mali. To do so, a stochastic production frontier was estimated for each crop category and the full sample. Globally, the finding is that different stochastic parameters affect significantly the technical efficiency of different crop categories producing plots. On average, we have an efficiency score of 55.00% for the full sample. The cash crop producing plots are technically more efficient than cereal crop producing plots. Regarding the results, the setting up the following measures is highly recommended: provide adequate training methods of new technologies and new agricultural practices for cereal crop producers, crop diversification must be introduced to the production system and the promotion of better irrigation systems.