Increasing farmer income in Senegal

The Challenge

Seventy percent of the workforce in Senegal is engaged in agriculture, yet agriculture accounts for only 14 percent of GDP, a figure much lower than the regional average. The sector suffers from insufficient access to credit for farmers, poor seed quality, low use of fertilizer and weak market links. These problems are significant barriers to strengthening the country’s farm sector and creating larger profits and stronger agriculture markets.

The Solution

International Resources Group (IRG) — a professional services firm that helps governments, the private sector, communities and households manage resources in ways that promote growth and sustainable change — works with Senegalese partners to implement USAID’s Economic Growth Project (PCE), a $78 million program to improve food security, increase the production of and demand for domestic food products — particularly cereals — and boost opportunities for economic growth.

• PCE works with private companies, local NGOs and the Senegalese government in a campaign to promote local demand for locally-grown cereals and change consumer purchasing patterns. The initiative — which targets urban women and youths — includes door-to-door campaigning, market road shows, billboard and radio advertisements, and cartoons that show how to prepare dishes using nutritious local cereals.
• PCE expanded use of a more productive species of rice to provide higher yields to farmers and allow them to plant rice in more varied conditions. PCE also trained participants throughout the rice “value chain” — the different activities needed to bring a product to market — from farmers to food processors to government agricultural extension agents.
• IRG is working to expand food storage capacity through partnerships with private investor-consolidators to reduce cereal price fluctuations.
• PCE is exploring different mediums for providing credit to the various value chain actors, including building on existing loan guarantees through the Development Credit Authority for agricultural sector banks and micro-finance institutions, and providing technical assistance to banks and monetary financial institutions in evaluating loan proposals.
• To strengthen and expand Senegal’s human capacity to manage these initiatives on its own, PCE launched a new master’s degree at the National Agricultural College (ENSA) in Thies that provides a new business “value chain” orientation to the country’s leading agriculture school.
• PCE has linked small farmers with Senegalese businesses to better integrate and grow domestic markets. For instance, IRG connected a fruit growers’ cooperative with a fruit company to increase Senegalese mango sales and help build a stable domestic market.
• To ensure direct support to Senegalese participants, IRG has created the $9 million Senegal Local Support Fund, which provides grants and in-kind support to agro-processing, value-chain alliances, and seed and fertilizer activities. The fund leverages additional financing from the private sector or associations.

The Results

In 2010 alone, more than 20,000 agricultural firms benefitted from PCE’s support, many aided by stronger demand for local products. The volume and value of 11 major value chains increased, with participating firms more than doubling the production target set the year before and boosting sales by $2.1 million. In the maize value chain, PCE has helped Senegalese producers and processors capture 10 percent of the maize import market in just two years. As the program evolves, Senegalese farmers and people in associated industries are being equipped with the agricultural and business skills necessary to build their own futures.