In Senegal, the African Development Bank provides support to strengthen food security

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

11-Dec-2019

In Sikilo, a village in south-eastern Senegal, Gnilane Faye, beneficiary of the Food Security Support Project in the Louga, Matam and Kaffrine regions (Pasa Loumakaf), stands proudly in front of his henhouse. At his side, his son Serigne Saliou Bâ nicknamed "the child of Pasa Loumakaf". She presents her farm management book and explains the start of her activities.

“I started the activity with 43 poultry. Thanks to Pasa Loumakaf's support in technical training and advisory support, I was able to produce five times more chickens. Today, I have already sold 160. At an average price of $ 6 per chicken, I was able to generate an annual income of nearly $ 1,000, "says Gnilane Faye. Income which enabled her to pay her son's school fees and diversify his activities: she invested in market gardening and benefited from financial support from the project to build a sheepfold, which already houses eight goats.

Not far from there, in the village of Nguetou Malick, Segnane Modou also owns a sheepfold financed by Pasa Loumakaf. This support was given to him to promote the sheep industry as part of Tabaski's national sheep self-sufficiency program. Cost of investment: $ 5,300. "At the start, I only had two sheep, I now have 13. I sold 3 to meet my father's hospital expenses ($ 635)," he says.

The Food Security Support Project in Senegal, Pasa Loumakaf, received 40 million US dollars from the World Program for Agriculture and Food Security. The African Development Bank, which acts as the executing agency for the project, has provided funding of $ 2.8 million in the form of a loan from the African Development Fund.

Launched in 2014, the project aims to improve the food security and income of rural producers and breeders in Senegal. It focuses on the development of agricultural and livestock infrastructure, with particular emphasis on water mobilization, support for development, value chain development and capacity building for grower beneficiaries. , breeders and communities.

“Pasa Loumakaf targeted Louga, Matam and Kaffrine because of the socio-economic characteristics of these regions: relatively high poverty rate (the poverty index is between 45% and 64%), recurrent malnutrition and low rainfall with 300 at 350 mm per year, "explains Moustapha Diaw, project coordinator.

Towards agricultural diversification

After five and a half years of implementation, the changes are perceptible: agricultural diversification, increased income, improved production and productivity, opening up, securing and marketing products.

In terms of agricultural infrastructure, he carried out the development of 2,500 hectares of rice lowlands, the construction of five grouping centers, the development of forty farms totaling 390 ha of irrigated perimeters around 32 boreholes as well as 60 ha of market gardens, the construction of 26 farm buildings. Some 111 km of rural roads and ramps facilitated access to markets.

In the department of Kaffrine, the beneficiaries of the farm Medina Temegne expose their products: cassava, tomato, eggplant, orange-skinned sweet potato, moringa and peanut. “All of our products are available on the market all year round through drilling. Our 42 women members and young people are trained and supervised. They do not want to leave the village and the farm anymore, "notes the president of GIE Médina Temegne. Since 2017, the farm has accumulated $ 33,000 in revenue, more than half of which has self-financed production campaigns, the rest being shared between the beneficiary populations.

Thanks to agricultural development and water management, the project created real prospects for development: production is more diversified (market gardening, rice cultivation, etc.), rural exodus has decreased (more than 70% of farmers installed on the farms are young people from 18 to 35 years old) and the women have converted to market gardening activities, abandoning the sale of charcoal. More than 1,100 jobs were created on farms, 40% of which were for women. In partnership with ACMU (Universal Health Coverage Agency), the project also enabled 10,000 people to join mutual health insurance thanks to the income generated by agricultural activity.

In addition, the Pasa Loumakaf project has also set up various pastoral infrastructures (boreholes, ponds, vaccination parks, sheepfolds, henhouses, barns) to increase the productivity of the livestock sector.

The project supported 217 water infrastructure management committees and trained some 17,000 farmers, including 10,000 women, and 36,000 livestock farmers to master production, processing, management and marketing techniques.