[Entretien exclusif] Dr Mabouba Diagne : « J’ai le plaisir de vous annoncer que les récoltes seront au rendez-vous »
Five days traveling across Senegal from the Southeast to the center. From November 24 to 28, Dr. Mabouba Diagne, Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Livestock, conducted a follow-up tour in the regions of Kédougou, Tambacounda and Kaffrine to assess the performance of the 2024-2025 agricultural campaign and encourage momentum towards food sovereignty.
The government official met with the men and women who work tirelessly every day to supply Senegalese markets with agricultural products. During this tour, the minister agreed to answer a few questions from Seneweb and Le Soleil . In this joint interview, Dr. Mabouba Diagne discusses the promising agricultural outlook for the 2024-2025 season and the challenges he strives to address daily within his department.
You have just completed five days of visits to several fields in the Southeast and part of the central region. This initiative is part of the monitoring of the 2024-2025 agricultural season. What is your assessment following this tour?
We have just completed a tour to monitor the agricultural campaign in the regions of Kédougou, Tambacounda and Kaffrine. Traveling nearly 2,000 km over five days in the nooks and crannies of the various departments of these three regions with high agricultural potential, we met with small producers, cooperatives, women's economic interest groups and agri-jambars .
This mission provided an opportunity to observe on the ground the dynamics of development in several sectors such as rainfed rice, maize, cotton, bananas, peanuts, millet, etc. It also allowed us to assess this year's production conditions, to ensure that beneficiaries received subsidized inputs, to jointly evaluate harvest trends, to identify constraints and challenges, and to jointly identify avenues for improvement with a view to achieving the objective of food sovereignty, as outlined in the Senegal 2050 vision .
If there's one hope we can make at the end of this tour, it's that we're heading towards record returns on several investments. Can you tell us about them?
Yes, indeed. This year, I am pleased to announce that the harvests will be plentiful. According to the projected results of agricultural surveys, we will exceed 900,000 tonnes for peanuts and 630,000 tonnes for corn.
For bananas, record production is expected to reach 112,500 tonnes, compared to 73,400 tonnes last year, representing a 53% increase. Similarly, cotton production is projected to grow by more than 60%, rising from 15,000 tonnes in 2024 to 25,000 tonnes in 2025, with the highest yields in the sub-region.
As a reminder, the upward trend in agricultural production began during the horticultural season: onions, at 450,000 tons, and potatoes, at 250,000 tons, were able, for the first time, to fully meet the country's annual needs. Overall, the same favorable trends are observed in most other crops.
What is the secret behind these bright forecasts?
A combination of factors, among which, first and foremost, is the strong will of His Excellency the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister to place agriculture at the heart of the priorities of the new government.
This commitment translated into the allocation of record budgets of 120 and 130 billion in 2024 and 2025 to support rural areas. With this support, my department, in collaboration with all relevant sectoral ministries, implemented the necessary measures to mobilize and distribute the required inputs transparently and on time.
I would like to point out in this regard that records have also been set in the provision of fertilizers: 105,000 tonnes of NPK and 120,000 tonnes of urea imported in the form of a bulk purchase program , thus making it possible to achieve a saving of nearly 2 billion.
Added to this is the exceptional effort of the farmers, who demonstrated remarkable dedication, as evidenced by this year's planted harvests, and the abundant rainfall, which was well distributed both temporally and geographically. This is an opportunity to give thanks to God, who has blessed us with a rainy winter and very promising harvests.
"Good production is very positive in that it ensures good self-sufficiency and better incomes for often vulnerable farmers."
The tour provided an opportunity to meet these men and women, these soldiers of food sovereignty. How would you describe their commitment?
I was particularly impressed by the commitment of the rural world in its diversity, especially young people and women through cooperatives and economic interest groups.
The return of the diaspora to agriculture has attracted my full attention, with the examples of Balla Cissoko from Tamba, Insa Gaye in Darou Salam in Koumpentoum, and Pape Matar Sarr in Kathiote, in the Kaffrine region, which are quite inspiring for young people.
These three farmers believed in returning to the land, investing in their local areas and creating jobs, thus setting up models for young people.
Another example that commands respect is that of the marabout Serigne Bara Sy, a Koranic teacher based in Syll (Kouthiaba), in the department of Koumpentoum, who cultivates more than 200 hectares (peanuts, millet, corn, rice) to feed nearly 200 talibés who are fully supported.
Finally, the start of operationalization of the Salémata community agricultural cooperative was a great satisfaction, as it enabled, thanks to a synergy of actions between the services of my department, the WFP supported by France and the ministries in charge of Family and Education, the production of 200 ha of rice intended to supply the school canteens of Kédougou.
This means that it is possible for Kédougou to feed itself, thanks to the agricultural cooperatives that we plan to set up in Samécouta and in the DAC of Itato.
Another reason for satisfaction is the reconstitution of seed capital, which is being implemented in all the regions visited, with the support of ISRA and the decentralized agricultural services.
Are the agricultural infrastructures ready to accommodate such a harvest?
Producers are primarily focused on successfully marketing this bountiful harvest. This is the key takeaway from the instructions of His Excellency the President of the Republic, aimed at ensuring the successful marketing of the agricultural season.
My department plans to start consultations with stakeholders this week, in preparation for the next Interministerial Council on agricultural marketing.
How might these record yields affect the Senegalese market and its population (farmers, growers and consumers)?
Good production is very positive because it ensures sufficient food for self-sufficiency and better incomes for often vulnerable farmers. A successful agricultural season means food security and prosperity in rural areas.
The expected good peanut harvests will supply our oil mills and open up export prospects, while preserving our needs for certified seeds.
For corn, thanks to the contract with feed producers, we plan to make significant quantities available to them for the production of livestock feed.
For cotton, marketing is already ensured to cotton farmers through SODEFITEX.
Senegalese bananas are currently the only ones available on the market, thanks to the unprecedented measure of suspending imports.
Cereals such as millet, maize, sorghum, and fonio will also be available to meet our needs, not to mention the ample supply of fodder for livestock. This means that this successful agricultural season is entirely beneficial for rural communities and the country as a whole.
"The investment needs are enormous to achieve food sovereignty."
Mechanization undoubtedly contributes to these results. During this campaign, you implemented a strategy of rotating agricultural vehicles across the country. Could you elaborate on this strategy?
Mechanization is one of the major challenges facing our agriculture. That is why my department, drawing lessons from the significant investments made in the acquisition of agricultural equipment, is implementing the new Allo Tracteur concept .
It is thanks to this agricultural service delivery model that the 200 hectares of rice produced in the Salémata Agricultural Cooperation Center (CAC) are currently being harvested. The rice-growing areas of Tamba and the Anambé basin are also being harvested, thanks to threshers brought from the Senegal River valley.
Listening to farmers reveals a perfect convergence of views on the urgency and necessity of setting up Agricultural Equipment Use Centers (CUMA) in the CACs, in order to better take care of mechanization needs, which are as important as seeds and fertilizers in modern agriculture.
You were allocated a budget of 130 billion CFA francs for this campaign, a colossal, even record-breaking, amount, but one that doesn't seem sufficient to achieve your ambitions for this sector. What are your hopes for the future?
The investment needs to achieve food sovereignty are enormous. Therefore, the state's efforts, while clearly increasing, will not be sufficient.
The private sector is called upon to play a major role through public-private partnerships, without forgetting small producers who, through the Community Action Centers (CACs), will be better equipped for formalization, training, financing, water management, access to mechanization services, and support, in order to make them the true actors of Senegal's food sovereignty. This is the wish of the Head of State and the Prime Minister, which we aspire to realize.
During this tour, at each stage you encouraged farmers to diversify. Why?
For several reasons, crop diversification is essential for sustainable agriculture. First, monoculture depletes soils and leads to low yields. Crop rotation improves productivity and enriches the soil.
The diversification I am talking about also concerns horticulture, which must take over from large winter crops during the off-season, to allow producers to cultivate all year round.
But this presupposes the availability of water. That is why, through the CACs, we are working to improve water management in all rural communities, in order to keep producers busy all year round.
He is pleased to note that producers are only asking for water and the necessary support to meet this challenge.
Commentaires (18)
Merci de preciser que la récolte ne sera pas au rendez-vous vous dans une très grande partie de la region de Louga. Pas d’arachide, ni mil ni niebe.
Bravo monsieur le ministre de l'agriculture vous faites un travail extraordinaire. Le gouvernement aurait beaucoup intérêt à communiquer sur ces résultats et laisser les commentaires de politiques politiciennes aux opposants et à leur meutes de soi-disant chroniqueurs.
Il fût un temps, on lisait ces genres d'interview...
Si Louga dansait moins et travaillait plus, peut être la récolte serait au rendez vous.
Moom dey wakh rek
Réseaux sociaux et 50 groupes Whatsap
bilahi wakh rek laye defe
Il travaille et fait des résultats. essaie de le démentir par les chiffres, kuluna de m.rde
Un bosseur! Bravo Dr.
"J'ai le plaisir de vous annoncer" comme quelqu'un qui écrit à sa fiancée. Nous, nous sommes au regret de ne pas vous croire sur parole. Tous vos engagements ont été reniés : caisse noire, appel à candidatures.
Vraiment , un bossuer il faut poursuivre sur la même lancée.
LE MEILLEUR BOSSEUR DU GOUVERNMENT,IL MERITE D ETRE PRESIDENT DE LA REPUBLIQUE.
Merci Mr Diagne , pas à pas rek , nous atteindrons le sommet inchalla ;Tous nos encouragements . Rome ne s'est pas fait en un jour
Un supporter de Mabouba multiplie les posts
Non, c'est lui-même qui fait ces posts! Aka am diott! 🤣
Stp mes côtes way !!! Wakh nga deug meune na nékeu moom moy def ay post youbari di nakh bopaam
Vous les kulunas gnou gnakk diom nguene, sokhor nguène bonn guène, vous ne voulez du mal au pays.
je ne sais pas si les résultats suivent mais c'est sûr qu'il ne craint pas la chaleur à l'intérieur du pays
C'est pas parcequ'il y'a une politique agricole coherente, mais une.bonne pluviométrie. Une politique agricole fera que :
Les semences soient dispnibles! Ce qui.n'est pas le cas
L'engrais soit disponible, il est subventionne et insiffisant pour les besoins en hivernage et disponible au prix exhorbitif du marche en saison.maraîchère..
L'encadrement des services agrocoles, n'existent que.de non,
La collecte et la vente et les prix au producteurs des recoltes sont de vrais problemes
Il faut faire moins d'annonce sir les resultats qui ne dependent pas de l'Etat mais des corrections pour que.le.systeme oit huilé et que l'acces au credit agricole tout comme l'intervention de l'Etat soit repensé !
Il est facile de se glorifier de récoltes mais mieux vaut s'appesantir sur.ce qui.peut faire avancer notre agriculture.
Nous sommes tous Seneaglais et aimons ce pays mais la seule communicatipn sans bases claires et assainies reste de la propagande pour.le chef+ cela nous n'en voulons pas et ce Ministre est un.adepte de cette facon de faire +!
ce ministre travaille. ayez l'honnêteté de dire quand ça marche, "ça marche!" et quand ça ne va pas, "ça ne va pas! oun oun!". Avec ce ministre, reconnaissons pour une fois que les choses bougent! et dans le bon sens...kou guiss néne ni néna nguii. Bravo monsieur le ministre!
Monsieur "LA" maïs, depuis qu'il a dit ça, les récoltes ont disparu! 🤣🤣🤣
Encorecun complexé esclave de la langue française, le français s'en fiche de ta langue et tu défends leur langue,
Une bonne nouvelle l' insuffisance alimentaire sera Une BONNE CHOSE .
Merci Mabouba Diagne
Je cherche à le rencontrer
Ce Mr aime son pays . Que le bon Dieu te guide
Amen
2000 km en 5 jours et il prétend avoir vu autant de monde, il n'a fait que son travail de ministre.
à l'écouter tout va bien dans le meilleur des mondes, pas modeste le mec !
au fait ,900'000 tonnes d'arachides et pas permis de l'exporter, les sénégalais devront s'en gaver ?
un vrai rigolo !
Comment se fait-il que la plupart des ministres et "spécialistes" mettent DR. avant leur nom ?
😂😂😂😂 on est en Afrique les titres 😂😂😂😂 docteur, professeurs pour impressionner, Professeur Alfa Condé les guinénens disent qu il est prof a la sorbonne
Si le ministre disait que; j'ai le plaisir de vous informer que les récoltes sont bonnes au lieu de seront là d'accord sait il ce qui adviendra demain surtout que une pluviométrie guète le Sénégal en cette période... toujours dans des promesses qu'il ne metrise pas ce gouv.
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