Russia eventually followed through on its threat not to renew Ukraine’s grain import deal, called the Black Sea Grain Initiative. As soon as President Vladimir Putin’s decision was made public, a chorus of lamentations erupted from different corners of the world. It started with the European enemies of the Russian head of State. The European Commission issued a statement in which it « unequivocally condemns Russia’s decision ». She adds that by doing so, “Russia is exacerbating the global food crisis it helped create.” The African Union Commission, for its part, through its President, Moussa Faki Mahamat, expressed strong regret at this decision. No doubt he remembered that he had been with Macky Sall in Sochi, Russia, in June 2022, to plead for the exit of cereals and fertilizers from Ukraine and Russia. The Russian President, who had hitherto been intransigent on the issue, especially when addressing Westerners who had just increased the sanctions against his country, accede to the demands of African leaders to ease the blockade of Ukrainian ports with grace, in particular Odessa, where the bulk of Ukrainian export products passed, including wheat and fertilizers.

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And it was high time. The war in Ukraine had resulted in plunging into misery African populations already strongly affected by the effects of Covid-19. Trade, which had slowed down sharply, if it had not focused on rich countries to the detriment of others, had not fully regained its pre-Covid rhythm. The Senegalese government had tried to stem the exorbitant rise in the prices of basic necessities by depriving itself of significant financial resources drawn from taxes and other excise duties. Thus, for wheat flour, imports entered Senegalese territory without any tax payments. Alas, wheat was still expensive because in addition to the rise in the price of the product itself, the cost of sea freight to Senegal, like all other African countries, experienced a significant increase.

A ton of wheat reached 350,000 CFA francs in June last year in Dakar, against nearly 200,000 CFA two months earlier. The state no longer had any leeway, especially since bread was not the only product to experience a price increase. In fact, with the Covid crisis and the Slavic war, the Senegalese were discovering that local products were rare in their households, especially in large cities. Suddenly, we realized the failure of decades of food self-sufficiency programs.

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Long before the structural adjustment programs of sad memory, the country had embarked on import-substitution programs, which aimed to encourage local production of what we consume. But if Senegal has experienced a resounding and worthily acclaimed success in the field of poultry farming, everywhere else, the report is with the failure. We demonstrated in these columns last week how the political will has never really accompanied the billions poured into the production of speculations such as rice or groundnuts, the yields of which continue to decline despite the large sums consecrated to them.

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Concerning wheat, which is mainly used to make bread, an institution of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Institute of Food Technology (Ita), has succeeded for several decades in reducing its share in quality bread by the contribution of maize, millet, sorghum or other cereals produced locally. We manage to produce bread that is very rich in nutrients and easy to digest. Unfortunately, for lack of support from the authorities, the popularization of these products is not done in such a way as to be able to impose them on the public. As a result, they have become niche products, intended for an affluent clientele.

Passing through Dakar last May, a big French farmer, member of Medef, did not understand Senegal’s decision to seek to produce wheat here. He said that if the country wanted to get into this field, it should not select 2 varieties, but several dozen, to be sure to have the product that would be perfect. Nevertheless, for him, the cultivation of wheat should not be done at the expense of local cereals. Shouldn’t the efforts and resources devoted to acclimatizing wheat under our skies be devoted to promoting our local products and adapting them to our current diet? Is this how the lessons of the blockade of Odessa have been assimilated?

By Mohamed GUEYE / mgueye@lequotidien.sn

• Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH / Serigne S. DIAGNE