Senegal’s new powers claim to want to tackle the high cost of living, and at every opportunity calls for the creation of conditions for food self-sufficiency. Between populist rhetoric at times and certain sovereignist elements of language, we are waiting to see what roadmap the Pastef government will deploy to make food self-sufficiency attainable. The President of the Republic, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, has instructed his government to submit an operational emergency plan to combat the high cost of living. This plan would propose bold measures to lower the prices of staple foods, with the key aim of setting up an early warning and price monitoring system, based at the Prime Minister’s Office. There is ambition, but we’re waiting to see what this “plan” will look like on May 15, and what it will be able to alleviate in the household basket.

It’s all well and good to shout from the rooftops that the average Senegalese should have affordable products at affordable prices. It’s just as noble to campaign for a form of food sovereignty, so that all the produce we sow ends up on our plates. However, there is a whole mechanism on which this must be done, besides “emancipatory” slogans and catchphrases whose conditions of operability leave much to be desired. There has been no shortage of food self-sufficiency programs in this country’s history. President Abdou Diouf’s regime opted for local consumption. President Wade saw the Goana as a means of feeding all Senegalese. A comparison with what’s being done in Morocco, during a visit to the Meknes International Agricultural Show (Siam), convinced me that no matter how ambitious we are to develop Senegalese agriculture and see national champions emerge, we will always fall short due to a lack of political will to adequately protect sensitive sectors.

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A glance at the rice, milk, oil and sugar sectors (staples for all households in our country) gives a fairly striking idea of the disorder prevailing and all the difficulties to be confronted. Self-sufficiency was one of former President Macky Sall’s flagship projects when he came to power. Initiatives and efforts were deployed to improve the country’s production capacity and impact on volumes. Macky Sall focused on financing agricultural infrastructure, from land development to the construction of production tracks, as well as providing farmers with quality inputs and seeds. Twelve years down the line, the rice sector has made a great leap forward, with production now covering half of our country’s rice needs. Rice imports, which are still substantial, bear witness to this state of affairs. National paddy production fluctuates between 600 and 700 thousand tonnes. We also regret the absence of real support mechanisms for small-scale producers, both in the Senegal River valley and in all the country’s other rice-growing areas (Anambé, Casamance).

For the entire rice sector, a marketing credit of between 5 and 6 billion francs Cfa is available per year from the Agricultural Bank (Lba) for all the country’s manufacturers. At current costs, such an envelope would only enable the purchase of 35,000 tonnes of paddy rice for a country that dreams of being self-sufficient, with an annual production requirement of around 2 million tonnes.

This credit remains a drop in the ocean of paddy rice production. Senegal claims to be self-sufficient in rice, while leaving the financing of 90% of the country’s producers in the hands of bana-bana and other types of donors. To produce 2 million tonnes of paddy, at least 200,000 hectares need to be developed, assuming a double harvest per year (based on a yield of 5 tonnes per hectare, obtained through the rice self-sufficiency policy launched by President Macky Sall). At present, just over 50,000 hectares have been developed throughout the country, but there is a lack of financing for all players in the value chain (producers and processors). President Bassirou Diomaye Faye spoke of the need for reform to enable small producers to have assets to use as collateral when applying for substantial credit from banks.

The rice sector must have its own protectionist mechanisms, although import operators could take a different view. The question of peanut oil and seeds, a commodity par excellence in our country’s agricultural history, also deserves to be addressed. Seed collection in Senegal and export to Asia have become Sonacos’ core business. To see such an industrial flagship, which in the 1980s was one of Africa’s major agro-industrial groups, reconvert to seed trading is a blow to any business enthusiast and to any slightly nationalistic or chauvinistic spirit.

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Our country sends untaxed peanut seeds to China, to the detriment of our presses, which can endure a peanut campaign without turning at convenient levels. When we realize that semi-processed oil from Senegal is heavily taxed on export to these same Asian markets, we can only advocate courageous interventionism to ensure that our industries survive and that our production is used to feed our populations. I don’t think China would bother with rough interventionism if its agro-industrial mammoth Cofco were to be harmed in any of the sectors in which it operates. Sonacos is a company with the logistical means and all the tools to be present in the sale of all commodities such as groundnuts and cashews, in addition to being able to offer quality oil on the local market at an affordable price. Scuttling an industrial group to leave the oil business to traders and operators flooding our markets with low-quality vegetable oil, with all the health risks, reluctantly seems to be the option. However, our country is paying dearly for it.

What is said for rice and oil can also be said for milk and tomatoes. Our country is inundated with imported products, taxed at low levels for social reasons. In addition to exposing our populations to major health risks, all economic activity is affected. It takes political courage to take well-considered protectionist measures.

Beyond slogans, the time has undoubtedly come for Senegal to really protect some of its agricultural sectors by providing the necessary resources. A logic, with incentives to consume Senegalese products, must be promoted by a government that makes nationalism one of the determining factors in its actions. Targeted promotion of certain Senegalese products, as is the case with onions, should be encouraged. It’s a question of being consistent with a goal of sovereignty. Morocco has done this, and I don’t think it regrets in the slightest the choice it has made to feed its entire population independently.

By Serigne Saliou DIAGNE / saliou.diagne@lequotidien.sn

  • Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH