Comparative Analysis Of Capital Intensive And Labor Intensive Rice Irrigated Perimeters In The Senegal River Valley

Senegal is heavily dependent on imported food, particularly rice. During the late sixties and early seventies the Sahelian drought made the country painfully aware how dependent its agriculture is on rainfall. Irrigation and full water control systems along the major rivers became the "priority of priorities" in the recent Senegalese national plans. In the Senegal River Valley two major types of irrigation schemes had been implemented along the river valley since 1973: large scale and small scale irrigated perimeters. The objectives are to increase rice production and reduce dependence on foreign imports of rice. This paper analyzed the two types of irrigation schemes in the Senegal River Valley and compares the financial and economic cost of producing rice in each of them with the average CIF price of rice delivered to the capital city Dakar. The analysis shows that for large irrigated perimeters the economic and financial cost of locally produced rice delivered to Dakar range from 132 to 233 percent of the economic and financial average CIF price, respectively. For small perimeters the economic and financial costs are, respectively, 140 and 125 percent of the CIF prices. Costs for both large scale and small scale perimeters are relatively high for the following reasons: a) Senegal rice imports consist of broken milled rice from Southeast Asia which is the least expensive quality of rice on the world market; and b) Managerial problems which can be significantly improved if more consistent policies toward irrigated rice production are defined and applies, and if the land development agency concerned with the Senegal River Valley is reorganized.