Agribusiness for Africa’s Prosperity. Country Case Studies
Targeting commodities (Policy Factor 3)
and
producers
for
value
addition
and
social
inclusion
Senegal has adopted a two-pronged approach to value addition and social inclusion. On the one hand, through its main agricultural sector programmes, namely GOANA, PDMAS and REVA, it seeks to create employment and to boost income levels for under-privileged groups through increased land-use and provision of other inputs as well as measures at enhanced quality of the produce. Targeted commodities include most of the traditional fruits and vegetable crops and the livestock products (like milk, red meat, etc.). On the other hand, the government is promoting innovation and value addition by expanding its main research centre that specializes in food technology, the Institut de Technologie Alimentaire (ITA), which focuses on five priority areas (source: http://www.ita.sn): Cereals and starchy vegetable processing: baking, pastry, food recipes. Fruit and vegetables: harvesting, conditioning and processing into jam, syrup, dried fruit, purée and concentrates. Processing of meat products: sausages, salami, paté, smoked meats, etc. Transformation of fish products: fish paté, canned sardines, smoked fish, dried fish. Biotechnology: manufacturing of fermenting agents, vinegar, etc. These priorities were selected on the basis of either the crops that are traditionally processed locally or their potential for value addition in serving local consumer demand. In either case they are attractive to manufacturers and processors because domestic demand is substantial so that firms can exploit scale economies. New highly profitable and socially-inclusive value chains are emerging, such as the production of bio-fuel from jathropha. Oil extractors buy the harvest from a large number of small-scale growers to whom they provide seed receiving payment in the form of a share of the crop. Tobacco is another industry that follows the same out-grower business model mainly to secure closer and more reliable sources of input. So there are more potential value chains with a profitable business, but systematic implementation is needed. More information is needed to assess the potential of the domestic market and of the global demand, as well as the potential for value addition and for employment creation. Strengthening technological effort, innovation capacity, and capability building (Policy Factor 4) There are three main channels providing technological innovation and human capacity building in Senegal; the Institut de Technologie Alimentaire (ITA), the system of national universities, and the local branches and franchisees of food-processing multinationals. Institut de Technologie Alimentaire ITA is engaged in four main areas of technological innovation and capacity building. It seeks to develop modern techniques to replace traditional methods of agro- processing. This has contributed to a widening of the range of final products from crop processing. It is currently partnering with the Université Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar and two Belgian research centres associated with a company, Société de Développement Biologique (SODEBIO), to expand and to market its products. ITA offers expert services for quality control of processed crops by assessing the nutritional value of foods, verifying the degree of effectiveness of some industrial products, and ensuring compliance with health and safety standards.
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