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AfDB invests $2.8 million to strengthen Senegal’s food security

In Sikilo village in southeastern Senegal, Gnilane Faye, beneficiary of the Food Security Support Project in the regions of Louga, Matam and Kaffrine stands proudly in front of her hen house.

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 birds. Thanks to the support of Pasa Loumakaf in technical training and 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 that allowed her to pay for her son’s school fees and diversify her activities: she invested in market gardening and received 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 the investment: $ 5,300. “At startup, I only owned two sheep, I now have 13. I sold 3 to meet the hospital expenses (635 dollars) of my father,” he says.

The Senegal Food Security Support Project, Pasa Loumakaf received US $ 40 million from the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program. The African Development Bank, which is the executing agency for the project, provided $ 2.8 million in loan financing 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.

“The 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.

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, it has completed the development of 2,500 hectares of rice paddies, the construction of five groupage centers, the development of about forty farms totaling 390 ha of irrigated perimeters around 32 boreholes as well as 60 ha of vegetable gardens, the construction of 26 farm buildings. Some 111 km of rural roads and braces have 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 our products are available on the market all year round thanks to drilling. Our 42 female 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, of which more than half have self-financed production campaigns, the rest being shared between beneficiary populations.

Thanks to agricultural development and water control, the project has created real prospects for development: production is more diversified (market gardening, rice growing, etc.), the rural exodus has decreased (more than 70% of farmers farms are young people between the ages of 18 and 35) and women have converted to market gardening, leaving the sale of coal.

More than 1,100 jobs were created on farms, 40% of which were for women. In partnership with ACMU (Universal Health Cover Agency), the project has also enabled 10,000 people to join mutual health funds through 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. 

Source: www.afdb.org

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Written by Adebola

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