2024-03-13 23:08:03
Rice is present on all Senegalese plates but for the vast majority it is rice imported from Asia. This cereal is, however, grown locally, with rain in the center and south of the country, and by river irrigation in the north. A rice self-sufficiency program was even launched in 2014, efforts are being made to mechanize production, but many challenges persist.
With our special correspondent to Richard Toll, Juliette Dubois
At Richard Toll in Fouta, the seed season has begun. Seasonal workers throw handfuls of seedlings into the water. Mouhamed Diop rents 100 hectares of land, but he fights every year once morest the birds that come to peck at his crops.
« In the fields, we farmers do our job wellhe defends himself. These are the birds that tire us out too much and reduce profitability. For example, if I were to have 100 bags and the birds eat 30 of them, there would be less production. »
Unsuitable machines
It would therefore be necessary to harvest quickly to escape the birds, but the lack of machines handicaps producers, as Mouhamed Diop explains: “ I can’t get what I should harvest because of the birds, but also the lack of agricultural equipment. Where the harvest should be done in a week, if you don’t have equipment, it can take up to a month. »
Some farmers were able to purchase combine harvesters thanks to state subsidies. This is the case of Ousseynou Ndiaye. His machine harvests four hectares per day, a huge time saving. But according to him, climate change is already making it obsolete : « With the early rains, we have difficulties so that this machine which is equipped with tires is sometimes not able to ensure the harvest because the perimeters are wet and flooded. There, we need tracked machines. »
In addition to flooding, germination occurs too early, and the soils are increasingly salinized. Ousseynou Ndiaye estimates losses last year in the region at nearly 200,000 ha and 100 billion FCFA.
Necessary adaptation
Another consequence: producers are falling behind in carrying out the work and the objective of two harvests per year is not achieved. For Ousseynou Ndiaye, who is also president of the interprofessional committee of the rice sector, measures must be taken to better manage these effects of climate change. “ It would also be necessary to ensure the quality of the seeds with good credit adapted to the seeds. We must also pay attention to agricultural insurance which must be generalized. A disaster fund should be set up », he explains.
A scientific committee was set up with SAED, the Society for the Development and Exploitation of the Senegal River Delta. Aboubacry Sow is the director: “ the advice we give is to try to see how to set up the sowing as early as possible to therefore perhaps allow the harvest in June at the latest in July before the season of rains do not set in. »
Ultimately, the objective is to generalize dual culture and finally approaching self-sufficiency in rice. Senegal still imports a million tonnes of rice per year.
Read alsoSenegalese rice: the country is still far from its goal of self-sufficiency
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