SENEGAL ARCHIVES
Activity Archives (2003-2013)
(For more recent activities or country summary, see Senegal main page.)
2013
Regional Workshop for Finalizing/Launching the Project "Improving and Scaling Up of the SRI in West Africa" Held in Saly, Senegal
[August 2013] A regional workshop for finalizing/launching the project "Improving and Scaling Up of the SRI in West Africa" was held in Saly, Senegal, from July 30 to August 2, 2013. Since 2001, many of the countries involved with the West Africa Agriculture Productivity Program (PPAAO/WAAPP) were reportedly conducting small-scale SRI trials with average yields ranging from 7.5 t/ha to 11 t/ha compared to 2 to 5 t/ha for the traditional practices. In order to scale up these successful experiences, with the support of CORAF/WECARD, the World Bank-funded National Center of Specialization on Rice (CNS-RIZ) teamed up with SRI-Rice at Cornell University and several other partners to promote SRI in West Africa. The first regional meeting held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, was held July 26-27, 2012, and included participants from the thirteen PPAAO/WAAPP countries. The project entitled "Improving and Scaling-up the System of Rice Intensification in West Africa" was approved by the CORAF/WECARD Governing Board during its June 2013 meeting. (See 2013 workshop concept note.) [Note: A follow-up regional workshop to officially launch the project was subsequently held in Benin during February 2014].
[July 2013] In preparation for the 2013 growing season in the central regions of Senegal (Kaffrine and Kaolack) Peace Corps Agriculture volunteer Lorraine Perricone-Dazzo and program assistants Arfang Sadio and Youssoupha Boye designed and led four SRI trainings for regional farmers. The trainings took place from May to July, 2013, in the villages of Taiba, Karang, Ndioumby, and Katakel and trained a total of 243 farmers. The initial reports have been augmented with a new publication which is part of the Peace Corps' System of Rice Intensification Training Series.
The Taiba training aimed at teaching ten demo farmers working with Lorraine and their community about the importance and protocol of demonstrations. The other three events taught area farmers the SRI principles through discussion and visual aids and included hands-on practice in seed selection, nursery creation, and transplanting at proper spacing. Following these trainings 14 farmers in the area will be creating demonstrations of the technique with the consultation of Peace Corps volunteers and staff. These demo sites will be used for community education action and dissemination of SRI principles as well as to assess the effectiveness of those principles in various parts of the Kaolack and Kaffrine regions. SRI trainings have been held in the Matam region in the North and Kolda in the South of the country to be followed by testing and demonstration creation as well. (See report for details).
2012
The SRI experience in Senegal was presented at a Regional Workshop on System of Rice Intensification (SRI) held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on July 26 and 27, 2012. A video interview (below, at right) was given at the workshop by the Ernest Asiedu, Senegal participant and workshop co-organizer from WECARD/CORAF. The event was organized by the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF/WECARD), the National Center of Specialization for Rice (WAAPP Mali) and SRI-Rice (Cornell University) within the framework of the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Program (WAAPP).
A presentation on Senegal, prepared by Madiama Cisse (ISRA), Baye Salif Diack (SAED), and Abdoulaye Sy (ANCAR), was also made at the workshop. The delegation from Senegal reported that trials evaluating SRI methods comparing them with farmer practice under rainfed conditions in the northeastern part of the country began in 2008 at 4 sites, and increased to 6 in 2011. The trials, conducted under an agricultural development project in Matam (PRODAM), showed SRI yields averaging 53% higher than farmer-practice results, with rainfed SRI yield as high as 6.25 tons/ha. The delegation reported also that evaluations of SRI under irrigated management had started in one irrigated zone in 2002, expanding to 6 zones by 2007. In 2008, the area under irrigated SRI management totaled 30 ha, while in 2011, the SRI area was up to 80 ha. However, no data on yield were reported to the workshop.
From June 27-29, 2012, USAID's Expanded Agribusiness and Trade Promotion (E-ATP) sponsored a ToT on SRI in Kaolack, with 33 participants (of whom nine were women) from the following seven partner organizations: 1. The Agence Nationale de Conseil Agricole et Rural (ANCAR), 2. the Groupement d’Action pour le Développement Communautaire (GADEC), 3. Coordination des Organisations Professionnelles et Rurales du Département de Bignona (CORD/B), 4. the Société Nationale d'Aménagement et d'Exploitation des Terres du Delta du Fleuve Sénégal (SAED), 5. Entente Diouloulou (coopérative), 6. Africare/Projet de Promotion et de Diversification de l'Agriculture dans les Régions de Kaolack, Kaffrine, Kédougou et Tambacounda (PRODIAKT), and 7. Coopératives des Unions Agricoles de Podor. The partners then organized cascade trainings to train 516 producers (331 of whom were women) in different regions of Senegal during the fourth quarter of FY 2012. (See French language article for details.)
2010
Tim Krupnik reported at the Tropentag conference in Switzerland (September 14-16, 2010) on three seasons of on-farm experiments in three locations in the Senegal River Valley that he conducted together with colleagues from FAO and the Africa Rice Center (see paper abstract). During the 2008 dry season, farmers' (FP) and recommended management practices (RMP) were compared with a locally adapted version of SRI (ASRI), which included all principles, but substituted compost with mineral fertilizer. Across sites, they found yield increased for RMP by 20% and ASRI by 31% relative to FP. Krupnik reports that while farmers appreciated the yield and water saving benefits of the adapted SRI approach, they were concerned by the increased labor requirements, especially for weeding activities that coincided with labor needs for the horticultural crop.
After the first season, farmers designed and implemented a fourth system that hybridized RMP and ASRI, by maintaining intermittent irrigation, increasing crop density and following a single round of mechanical weeding with localized herbicide applications. This hybrid system was generally successful in reducing weed biomass, labor and inputs, and returned the highest net profits in 2 of 3 sites. RMP, ASRI and hybrid yields were all significantly greater (25%, 25% and 19%) than the farmer practices in the 2008 wet season.
In the 2009 dry season, the Senegalese State discontinued herbicide subsidies. The hybrid approach reduced herbicide use by 38% and 57% compared to FP and RMP, and was most profitable at all sites. While the economic impact of water savings imply that scaling up by the entire irrigation system could be beneficial, constraints noted by farmers presented problems to system-wide adoption. Krupnik and colleagues believe that future research should incorporate farmer ideas and circumstances before designing experiments rather than comparing pre-defined cropping systems that may or may not be relevant to local conditions.
2007-2008
Tim Krupnik, PhD candidate at University of California, Santa Cruz, (currently with CIMMYT) carried out an evaluation of SRI methods under the auspices of the African Rice Center (WARDA) in cooperation with key Senegalese agricultural research institutions and with the FAO Global Integrated Production and Pest Management Facility. He evaluated agronomic productivity, soil, water and pest management practices, and also assessing socio-economic trade-offs. On-station trials were conducted, including varietal trials, at two locations in the Senegal River Valley, and also on-farm trials in the Podor region. An interim report on the research is available in English or French. (Additional photos are contained in Krupnik's 2007 report). The picture at right shows the new cono weeder that the project is evaluating. (Click on picture to enlarge).
2003-2006
Peace Corps Volunteer Carrie Miner working at village level in Kolda region has had some initial success introducing SRI to farmers in 2006. Miner's experiences are written up in an article by Nathan McClintock in Rodale Institute's on-line magazine, The New Farm.
The first SRI trials in Senegal were done in 2003 at the initiative of Dr. William Settle (FAO), with two sets of side-by-side comparison trials. Yield on the control plots was 4 and 5 t/ha, while that on the SRI plots was 9 and 11 t/ha, once again showing that a doubling of yield can often, not necessarily always, be obtained with SRI methods. Senegal has been included along with six other West African countries in a large FAO project receiving Dutch funding, and complementary GEF funding, for work on ecologically-sustainable agriculture. The project has provided training for 30,000 farmers in SRI concepts and methods.
(2014-2015)
- FOR 2014-2015 SRI ACTIVITES, see Senegal main page
