APA-Dakar (Senegal) Women who are the spine of the local grain processing industry in Senegal in spite of the COVID-19 crisis have called for more support for their sector.
Like several African countries, Senegal has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in its quest for food self sufficiency.
Since he came to power in 2012, President Macky Sall has made this one of his main concerns, even if there is still a long way to go.
The Agricultural and Rural Prospective Initiative (IPAR) highlighted research carried out on the implications of the health crisis to point out the obstacles to strengthening Senegalese “local consumption.”
“This is a project that has lasted a little over two years. During this period, we reflected on the impact of COVID-19 on the local cereal value chains (millet and maize) which we tried to strengthen. What came back from the stakeholders was access to institutional markets,” IPAR Research Director, Laure Tall explained during a workshop held on the sidelines of the International Fair for Agriculture and Animal Resources (FIARA) in Dakar on Tuesday.
She explained that “the pandemic has caused decreases in production and accessibility” but specified that this did not happen everywhere in Senegal.
“The most productive areas have felt less of an impact,” Ms Tall said, noting an “increase in the price” of cereals which “affects all Senegalese households and consumers.”
The project, entitled “Promotion of local consumption through the valourisation of local cereals and connection to markets,” is financed by the French Foundation and the French Committee for International Solidarity (CFSI) as part of the Promotion of Family Farming in West Africa (Pafao) programme.
The objective of this initiative, led by the West African research laboratory, is to promote local consumption through the development of millet and maize, the main cereals consumed by the Senegalese.
It also aims to improve the food and nutritional security of the population and strengthen the connection between the supply of local cereal-based products and the demand of institutional markets (hospitals, schools, prisons, universities, orphanages, etc.).
Laure Tall is convinced that, in order to achieve food sovereignty, it is necessary to “support producers and processors.”
In this objective of the Senegalese government, materialised through “a strategy launched last January,” “institutional markets are an option,” she noted.
In addition, in the processing of local cereals, Ms. Tall noted that women are “the backbone.”
This is why most of the speakers, like the coordinator of the technical support unit of Senegal’s National Council for Rural Consultation and Cooperation (CNCR), El Hadj Thierno Cissé, called on the government to support these “key players” in the promotion of “local consumption,” a “priority issue” in Senegal.
However, the representative of the Ministry of Women, Family and Child Protection recalled the establishment of funding mechanisms to support the entrepreneurial projects of Senegalese women.
“There are mechanisms at the level of the Ministry, such as the Kuwaiti Fund, to the tune of three billion CFA francs, reserved exclusively for women. The financing of local product processing activities is a priority for our department,” he said.
ODL/ac/lb/as/APA