The Food Challenge In The Senegalese Rural Economy An Analysis Of The Domestic Cereals Promotion Policy

Since the colonial era, the expansion of the Senegalese economy was greatly sustained by the agricultural sector in which more than three-fourths of the total population were involved. A 2.3 percent average annual growth of total production during the sixties matched the speed at which the agricultural population was growing and the rural economy was engaged in a kind of equilibrium path. During the late sixties and early seventies, the situation began to change with an agricultural production growth rate dropping to the neighborhood of 1.3 percent against 2.8 percent for total population. Such a situation which is prevailing at the present time is seriously striking if we know that the agricultural sector should produce not only enough food for a rapidly growing population, but also raw materials for the development of local industries, mostly based on peanut and cotton. Per capita food production has been very unstable with large annual fluctuations but the trend has been clearly declining. World Bank experts noted that this situation is observed in the more general setting of Sub-Saharan Africa and especially the Sahel region of which Senegal is part. They observed that this phenomenon occurred over a period when local authorities and foreign aid focused more than ever before on food production projects. In the specific setting of Senegal, food problems have been a major policy issue since the early years of the drought, but some analysts support that a trend of shortage was already clear by 1960, the year of independence. The present food crisis is the result of various causes that have been in play for a long time.