Sales contract signing organised to help cereal producers to secure outlets in Senegal
28 October 2012
According to a press report, producers of millet and cowpea (niebe) in Senegal’s Diourbel Region signed sales contracts in September with processors and market operators from Dakar and Thiès. The initiative aims to help primary producers to secure outlets for their products. It is part of a larger IFAD-funded agricultural value chains support project (Projet d’appui aux filières agricoles) to strengthen the functioning of local supply chains, integrating farmers ‘into profitable value chains based on local agro-ecological potential’. According to the article, ‘the innovation in this project is to sell before producing’, in order to avoid selling off harvests at times when prices are low as a result of a supply glut.
There are many staple food crops under cultivation in the region in addition to millet and cowpea. These include maize, sorghum, groundnuts, cassava and fresh vegetables. Livestock production and tree crop cultivation also take place. A complex combination of smallholder production systems therefore needs to be taken into account when developing individual value chains.
According to an inter-agency report on cross-border trade in West Africa, considerable opportunities also exist for trade in the region: the lumos (weekly rural markets) in Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and the river valley in Mauritania provide links to wider regional marketing chains for products such as millet, sorghum, maize, and groundnuts.
Editorial comment
Establishing contractual relations between cowpea and millet producers, and processors and market operators is potentially a step in the right direction for many products: the contracts enable producers to obtain a better understanding of the nature of the business relationships that need to be developed in order to yield more value and stimulate investment in enhanced productivity.
Ensuring that farmers both understand and respect contracts constitutes an important foundation for any work on the development of sustainable value chains. This requires a strengthening of farmers’ organisations, so that they can help to enhance the position of farmers in contract negotiations and communicate the importance of respecting mutually agreed contracts. Particular challenges are faced as regards staple food products, where such contractual arrangements are rare compared to industrial crops, and where many local market opportunities potentially exist.
In order to ensure the sustainability of commodity value chains, it is important to understand the interconnectedness of products produced within smallholder farming systems. One example of this is shown in a study published by OECD, ‘Senegal – challenges of diversification and food security’. Within local production systems in the Senegal River Valley, rice producers also produce onions and tomatoes in the off-season, for domestic and export markets respectively, in order to be able to purchase the seeds and fertilisers required for rice production. Such complexities need to be taken into account in any contractual arrangements established with producers.
Most West African countries acknowledge the need for the development of agricultural commodity value chains and have integrated this dimension into their National Agricultural Investment Plans. However, the infrastructure required for the efficient functioning of these value chains is not at present well developed in Senegal and most other West African countries. In addition, while many donors are extending support for the development of a variety of value chains, the support is not always well coordinated and consistent with the production realities of local farmers. In this context, it is important that any support programmes are designed to take account of existing systems in order to ensure stakeholder buy-in and participation and to maximise the success of the initiative.
