Mali is a major recipient of foreign aid from many sources, including multilateral organizations (most significantly the World Bank, the African Development Bank, and Arab Funds), and bilateral programs funded by the European Union, France, the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, and Germany.

Mali's great potential wealth lies in mining and the production of agricultural commodities, livestock, and fish.

The most productive agricultural area lies along the banks of the Niger River between Bamako and Mopti and extends south to the borders of Guinea, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso.

This area is most important for the production of cotton, rice, pearl millet, maize, vegetables, tobacco and tree crops.

Cereal production, including rice, has grown annually, and the 1997–98 cotton harvest reached a record 500,000 tons.

Production has rebounded since 1987 due to agricultural policy reforms undertaken by the government and supported by the Western donor nations.

These reforms, combined with adequate rainfall, successful integrated rural agriculture programs in the south, and improved management of the Office du Niger, have led to surplus cereal production over the past five years.

During the wet season, farmers near the town of Dire have cultivated wheat on irrigated fields for hundreds of years.

The overall size of Mali's herds is not expected to reach pre-drought levels in the north of the country, where encroachment of the desert has forced many nomadic herders to abandon pastoral activities and turn instead to farming.

The largest concentrations of cattle are in the areas north of Bamako and Ségou extending into the Niger delta, but herding activity is gradually shifting southward, due to the effects of previous droughts.

Sheep, goats, and camels are raised to the exclusion of cattle in the dry areas north and east of Timbuktu.

Due to drought and diversion of river water for agriculture, fish production has steadily declined since the early 1980s.

[13] These goldfields, the largest of which lie in the Bambouk Mountains in western Mali (Kenieba Cercle), were a major source of wealth and trade as far back as the Ghana Empire.

Salt mining in the far north, especially in the Saharan oases of Taoudenni and Taghaza have been a crucial part of the Malian economy for at least seven hundred years.

The emergence of gold as Mali's leading export product since 1999 has helped mitigate some of the negative impacts caused by fluctuations in world cotton markets and loss of trade from the Ivorian Civil War to the south.

Gold collected in the towns is sold on—with almost no regulation or oversight—to larger merchant houses in Bamako or Conakry, and eventually to smelters in Europe.

Effective implementation of macroeconomic stabilization and economic liberalization policies and the stable political situation resulted in good economic performance and enabled Mali to strengthen the foundations for a market-oriented economy and encourage private sector development, backed up by significant progress in implementing the country's privatization program.

Mali's economic performance is fragile, characterized by a vulnerability to climatic conditions, fluctuating terms of trade, dependence on ports in neighboring countries.

Ivory Coast is where most of the country's trade goes through and the crisis previously experienced here had a negative effect on Mali's economy.

The emergence of gold as Mali's leading export product since 1999 has helped mitigate some of the negative impact of the cotton and Ivory Coast crises.

Mali is a major recipient of foreign aid from many sources, including multilateral organizations (most significantly the World Bank, African Development Bank, and Arab Funds), and bilateral programs funded by the European Union, France, United States, Canada, Netherlands, and Germany.

Before 1991, the former Soviet Union had been a major source of economic and military aid, including construction of a cement plant and the Kalana gold mine.

This included $39 million in sector support through United States Agency for International Development (USAID) programs, largely channeled to local communities through private voluntary agencies; Peace Corps program budget of $2.2 million for more than 160 Volunteers serving in Mali; Self Help and the Democracy Funds of $170,500; and $650,000 designated for electoral support.

Agriculture – products: cotton, pearl millet, rice, corn, maize, vegetables, peanuts; cattle, sheep, goats Exports: $3.06 billion (2017 est.)