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Senegal: As Protests Swell, 'Self Sufficiency' Plan is Questioned
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UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
28 April 2008
Posted to the web 28 April 2008
Dakar
Discontent in Senegal's capital Dakar, where millions depend on imported rice and foodstuffs, has increased in lockstep with rising global food and utility prices. The government has touted a "self-sufficiency" rice growing campaign as its answer to people's problems, but experts say the scheme is flawed.
"[The government] has not set out a credible vision for agricultural and rural development. Their vision is not one that will really help develop the rural economy," Jacques Faye, ex-director of the agronomy research institute of Senegal, told IRIN.
In the latest show of public concern about rising food and fuel prices, around 1,000 protestors marched in Dakar on 26 April, some carrying signs reading "we are hungry".
The march was peaceful, unlike previous demonstrations in November 2007 and March 2008 when marchers were dispersed by riot police.
The plan
Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade announced on 18 April that the country will become self-sufficient in staple foods by 2015 through a "massive" crop expansion programme, dubbed "the grand agricultural offensive for food security".
Under the new plan the government says it will increase rice production to 600,000 metric tonnes (mt) annually - up from the current 100,000 mt.
This marks a shift in government strategy, which since the 1970s has shown an unwillingness to invest in agricultural development, according to Matar Gaye, regional livelihoods manager for non-governmental organisation (NGO) Oxfam.
What high-quality rice Senegal currently does currently produce is exported, leaving the country heavily import-dependent. "It is almost impossible to find local rice in Senegal," Gaye said.
"State has to create right conditions"
The country has the right environmental conditions for high yields, said Amath Sall, the agricultural minister, and enough land to surpass the 600,000 mt target.
"The soil and climate in Senegal is as good as in Thailand from where we import much of our rice, and our yields in the north at 6 mt per hectare are higher than Thailand's 4 mt," Sall announced to the press in mid-April, estimating that there are 250,000 hectares of irrigable land in the north of Senegal and in Casamance in the south.
"We have enough land, good soil, all we lack is the money" said Saliou Sarr, a rice cultivator in northern Senegal. "We can fill the gap, but the state has to create the right conditions."
Few experts have come out to say the targets are unachievable, but many are hesitant to endorse them. One agricultural expert told IRIN: "Theoretically it is possible to meet these [rice] targets... but jumping from 20 percent to 100 percent, given the trend of the past 20 years where yields have been stagnant or even decreased, will certainly be a challenge."
Funding
Amadou Tidiane Wane, an agricultural engineer, estimates that boosting rice production to 534,000 mt per year will require US$335 million, which is equivalent to the government's total agricultural budget for the past five years.
So far, the government has announced US$23.7 million to tide over vulnerable people in rural areas but has not outlined how much it will spend on boosting long-term agricultural development overall.
While there is plenty of land available, levelling it to make it cultivatable costs up to $7,181 per hectare, according to Gaye, not even taking into account the costs of maintaining it in the future.
Currently, rice producers in Senegal rely on credit from investors to underwrite their seeds, fertiliser and pesticide inputs. Without credit, rice producers cannot afford to buy fertilisers and pesticides, the prices of which are also steadily rising.
Likewise, rice processors who buy paddy rice from producers to turn it into edible white rice cannot afford to buy without credit, leading to bottlenecks, according to Gaye.
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Rice production is however seen as a risky investment because of environmental hazards. In 2006 half of the rice seed in the Senegal river basin in the north was eaten by birds before the harvest, according to producers associations.
Loans from the national bank dried up after large numbers of rice producers defaulted on their repayments in the 1990s.
"If the goal is self-sufficiency in rice, the credit issue must be solved. The state must regulate this, and grant loans to farmers. Without credit they can't do anything," said Abdou Fall, executive director of the Agricultural Development Corporation.
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