Senegal urged to train farmers to produce sufficient rice

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rice production

The ambition of the Senegalese government to achieve sufficiency in rice production by the year 2017 will not be achieved without qualified farmers, agricultural experts meeting in Dakar have warned. rice production
In Senegal, rice is the most consumed foodstuff, with Senegalese citizens spending over 200 billion CFA Francs (about 400 million U.S. dollars) each year on over a million tons of rice, 80 percent of which is imported.
To end this dependence on imported rice, the government launched a 148 million dollar program to achieve self sufficiency in rice production by the year 2017.
Speaking recently during a forum to discuss ways to achieve self-sufficiency in rice production, Senegal’s Prime Minister Mouhammad Dione said besides setting aside money to fund rice production, the government will also adopt favourable taxation measures to protect locally produced rice from the imported rice.
However, according to some specialists, all these measures will not be effective if, in the agriculture sector, there are no qualified farmers who can use modern technology.
“We produce in the same way our ancestors did because our farmers are not well trained,” said Abdourahme Faye, head of agricultural training center.
“Almost 95 percent of Senegalese farmers are men and women who have not gone to school,” he said, urging youths from school to embrace farming.
“Productivity depends largely on qualification and training is one of the most important parameters for guaranteeing a higher number of qualified farmers in the rice farming sector,” added Sanoussi Diakite, the director for the National Office for Professional Training.
“We must actualise training and provide education to farmers instead of endlessly talking about plans to train them,” said Dr. Amadou Ndiaye from Gaston Berger university in northern Senegal’s Saint-Louis region.
“Our ambition of being self sufficient in rice production should be based on the fact that our farmers will undergo a proper training program so that they can become professional producers in future,” he added.
Moundiaye Cisse, the coordinator of 3D (Democracy, Human Rights and local Development), a local NGO involved in pushing for support for farmers, called for “utilization of the potential among young farmers who are on the ground but who had not been given adequate training.”
He however urged the government to check prohibitive prices of locally produced rice, as this had equally denied many people access to the local rice.
Senegal’s Professional Training Minister Mamadou Talla affirmed that “less than 5 percent of youths are qualified in the agriculture sector.”
Agriculture, professional training and livestock ministers who were present at the forum called for allocation of more resources to their ministries so that they can provide adequate training. Enditem

Source: Xinhua

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