United States Dry Bean Council's Report on Food Aid Mission To
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United States Dry Bean Council’s Report on Food Aid Mission to Senegal, Burkina Faso and Liberia September 28 – October 10th 2009 Submitted To - USDA/FAS Grain and Feed Division South Agricultural Building 14TH & Independence Avenues S.W. Washington, D.C. 20250-1000 Submitted By - Charles Wachsmuth Robert Green Senegal – Country Stats Life expectancy: 62.3 years (USA: 77.9) Under-5 child mortality: 116/1,000 live births (USA: 7/1,000) HIV prevalence, ages 15-49: [0.4 - 1.5]% (USA: [0.4 - 1.0]%) Physicians per 100,000 people: 6 (USA: 256) People undernourished: 20% (USA: 0%) People with access to safe drinking water: 76% (USA: 100%) Adult literacy: 60.7% (USA: 99%) Gross National Income per capita ( PPP US$): $1,560 (USA: $41,890) People living on less than $1 a day: 17% (USA: 0%) Senegal remains one of the most stable democracies in Africa, and it has long been involved with international peacekeeping and has progressed significantly in the past decade, both politically and economically. The country became eligible for Millennium Challenge Account funding due primarily to its strong commitment to ruling justly, investing in people, and promoting economic freedom. Senegal is a moderating voice in the Islamic and African worlds as a democratic, predominantly Muslim, but secular country. Senegal is said to be the peanut (or groundnut, as they are called here) capital of the world. While this slogan may be an exaggeration, the importance of agriculture to Senegal's farmers cannot be overstated. Peanut farming accounts for more than 60 percent of the nation's employment, yet makes up only 10 percent of the gross domestic product. Most agricultural produce is low in market value and is used as a domestic food staple. Inconsistent rains and locust invasions are among the many threats to farmers' livelihoods. Opportunities for the US Dry Bean Council in Senegal are unfortunately small if not inexistent right now both on the food aid and commercial side. While there is a history of bean consumption it is strictly of a blackeye type very specific to the country. While we weren’t able to make any direct impacts in sales or opportunities in country, our visits with the NGO community and the information we were able to share will certainly impact how those NGOs in other countries regard us (for the better.) September 28th 8:30 A.M Meeting at USAID SAGIC with Richard Cook Tel (221)33 869 77 30 Email [email protected] Please see expanded notes from the second meeting below 10:00 A.M Josephine Trenchard Resident Representative Counterpart Int Point E X blvd de l’Est next to LGM Tel: Office (221) 33 869 80 20/21 Counterpart International focus in Senegal is to increase access to education and health services, improve child health and nutrition, decrease Malaria infection rates through health and sanitation trainings and coordinate care and support trainings for people living with HIV/AIDS. Their largest activity that recently ended was the Vulnerable School Program, through this program they provided two hot meals daily to over 3,000 students, and was able to facilitate the construction of schools and latrines for 8 of the 9 participating schools. The program provided children with learning materials as well as bedding mats and mosquito nets since many children sleep on barren floors. Counterpart supplied cooking utensils and training for cooks and helped organize democratically elected school management committees. Students and teachers are de-wormed twice a year and soon an improved educational and technical/vocational curriculum will be fully implemented. 11:30 A.M Cancelled Abi Toure Marketing Director Casino Super Markets 46, Av. Ponty X Wagane Diouf. Tel: (221)33 849 05 05 Email: [email protected] Tuesday, September 29th 2009 8:30 A.M Mr Aziz Ndiaye - Director of SAFCOM Tel:221 77 113 31 31/ (221) 33 869 30 70 Email: [email protected] Please see Rice Importer Notes Below 10:00 A.M Mrs Diouck - Director of SENCOM Tel: (221) 77 644 22 59/ (221)33 823 34 71 Please see Rice Importer Notes Below 11:30 A.M Mr. Sarr Commercial Director of ETS. ABDOU KEBE. Tel (221)77 550 57 93 or (221) 33822 55 92 Please see Rice Importer Notes Below 15:00 P.M Moustapha Tall General Director C.C.C.S Tel :( 221) 77 638 22 15 Email: [email protected] Please see Rice Importer Notes Below Wednesday, September 30th 2009 Dr. Ndiaga Cisse Director of the Bambey Research Center Thies Bean/Cowpea CRSP Dr. Cisse was very informative about his research and the growing of beans (blackeyes or cowpeas) both in his research center and in Senegal. He mention the Lugar area as the primary location for Cowpea production. His research center has developed a 45 day variety (Milla) that is being used. They have also developed a variety that has a red hue to it. Seems Senegalese like to have a color in their white rice and this has worked out very nicely. Two of their main problems are the "flower thripes" which attack the blossom and the Amsacta (insect) that attacks the stem. He did mention that the Senegalese farmer will keep about 200 kg of his production for home use and seed, and sell the rest. He mentioned that the seed rate was about 12kg/hectare and of course will vary depending on the land. He also mention that the government still owns the land, the the grower controls it. Farms are still small and getting smaller as the generations continue. The research center is doing many other things including millet, sorghum, sunflowers along with the cowpeas. He also mention that transgenic is needed if they expect to feed Africa in the future. Thursday, October 01st 2009 9:00 A.M Hassana Idriss Outman Senior Country Representative - Africare Africare-Senegal is currently implementing projects in community health, nutrition and food security. These projects are funded by various donors such as USAID, USDA, and the World Bank. Africare- Senegal has projects in seven out of 14 regions of the country. Africare’s approach has been to work directly with the local population to develop appropriate solutions to problems and capitalize on opportunities. However, local administrative authorities and locally elected officials play a key role in their approach as they represent the entry point to any activity Africare wants to undertake. Africare always intervenes as a facilitator to a process by providing capacity building which is central to ensuring the sustainability of the interventions. Africare in Senegal has a three year USDA Food for Progress program currently focused on Agricultural Development including seed, technology assistance and micro-credit. The program is affecting close to 56,000 beneficiaries in 140 villages through the monetization of soy meal. At this time there is no direct distribution of food happening and none planned in the immediate future. 11:00 A.M Rebecca Bassey Country Director - Catholic Relief Services CRS programs in Senegal include food security, natural resource management, local institutional development, health (specifically HIV and AIDS), income generation, peacebuilding and rehabilitation are creating a sustainable environment for development. CRS is not dealing with any food products at this time (distribution or monetization) but is working on a seed and tool program funded by USAID and OFD. The main thrust of the work here is to increase yields - even though 70% of the population in country is involved in ag production the country needs to import large portions of food needed. 2:00 PM Robert Hanson Ag Attaché USDA/FAS Senegal, Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire and Mali Mr. Hanson met with us and we spent the meeting discussing the overall situation in Senegal both for the Council and in general. It is his opinion that if the rice importers are not interested in bringing in product then there is little chance to move beans in country. 3:30 PM USAID SAGIC Dr. Richard Cook Tel (221)33 869 77 30 Email [email protected] Dr Cook (based in Mali) was very interested in the production of beans in Western Africa though in a way that was quite surprising, he asked us for technical assistance for the growing of a blackeye to be used as animal forage. During the space of a short introductory meeting on the 28th and another on the 1st it was readily apparent that this was the main focus of his section. We provided him with the contact information of Dr. Ndiaga Cisse with the CRSP for further assistance. Friday, October 02nd 2009 10:00 am Mr. Abdoulaye Faye School Meals Program Officer UN World Food Program (WFP) Senegal provides free education and is supposed to be compulsory for children ages 6 to 16. However, many children do not attend school due to lack of resources or available facilities. In 2006 more girls than boys were enrolled in primary school for the first time ever. However, high female illiteracy rates of 44 percent and school drop out rates of 30 percent affect mostly rural girls. WFP is working in 4,000 schools in 12 of the 14 regions (states) in the country reaching somewhere around 600,000 children. Right now the commodity basket being distributed is made up of 1,600MT of grain (maize & millet), pulses (lentils & green peas), oil and salt. We discussed the possible switch to beans as their pulse of choice but since the Senegalese aren’t culturally tied to any of our available classes WFP showed no interest. General Notes on Rice Importers: In general we were not received with any interest by the rice importers of Senegal.